Ratings2
Average rating3
Molly Roden Winter was a mother of small children with a husband, Stewart, who often worked late. One night when Stewart missed the kids’ bedtime—again—she stormed out of the house to clear her head. At a bar, she met Matt, a flirtatious younger man. When Molly told her husband that Matt had asked her out, she was surprised that Stewart encouraged her to accept.
So began Molly’s unexpected open marriage and, with it, a life-changing journey of self-discovery. Molly signs up for dating sites, enters into passionate flings, and has sex in hotels and public places around New York City. For Molly it’s a mystery why she wants what she wants. In therapy sessions, fueled by the discovery that her parents had an open marriage, too, she grapples with her past and what it means to be a mother and a whole person.
Molly and Stewart, who also begins to see other people, set ground rules: Don’t date an ex. Don’t date someone in the neighborhood. Don’t go to anyone’s home. And above all, don’t fall in love. In the years that follow, they break most of their rules, even the most important one. They grapple with jealousy, insecurity, and doubts, all the while wondering: Can they love others and stay true to their love for each other? Can they make the impossible work?
*More* is an electric debut that offers both steamy fun and poignant reflections on motherhood, daughterhood, marriage, and self-fulfillment. With warmth, humor, and style, Molly Roden Winter delivers an unputdownable journey of a woman becoming her most authentic self.
Reviews with the most likes.
The stars are mostly because I think it's such a difficult topic to write about. Either the people doing it are expected to have all the answers or pass judgment or maybe both, I guess. I was curious, and confess I got frustrated as the book went by, due to the lack of answers and generally the confusion expressed by the author, but that's exactly what I think should happen. She's just telling her story, and it's not her fault she doesn't have all the answers - it's a memoir, after all, not a manual. Her story is about her husband, who does like the idea of an open marriage, and her own feelings about it, which begin very dubious and evolve, or not, throughout the book.
I've always felt like the concept of monogamy is more social than anything else, and still think that after reading it. That was the only contribution the book made to my own opinion, but as I said, maybe it was enough - to know that after all, everyone should be able to form their own opinions and live accordingly instead of feeling there's this big book of rules bossing us around.