Happiness You Can't Buy

Offering up personal testimony about marital imperfections is arguably revolutionary in a time of feel-good self-help books and television shows dedicated to auctioning off marriage as a prize rather than a lifelong agreement between two loving partners. A decade into his marriage, Kurt Armstrong publicly takes stock of his self-described amateur attempt -- since after all, without walk-throughs and acted out entirely by imperfect people, marriage is one big dress rehearsal. In Why Love Will Always Be A Poor Investment: Marriage and Consumer Culture, he writes, "Marriage requires the ongoing, willed practice of love, and just like learning to play a musical instrument, simply wanting to be good at it doesn't accomplish much."