SPLITOPIA

Engaging and groundbreaking, Splitopia challenges outdated, negative assumptions about divorce with sharp wit, searing honesty, rigorous research, and intimate interviews, and offers guidance for healthier, happier splits.

When Wendy Paris announced that she and her husband were separating, friends forecast a tsunami of devastation—for both of them and their child. But as Paris would discover, divorce has improved dramatically in recent decades, due to changes in laws and family structures, advances in psychology and child development, and a new understanding of the importance of the father. Yet disapprobation and fear persist. In this incisive book, Paris cuts through the moralizing and myopia, and explores the new cultural phenomenon of the “good” divorce. Splitopia chronicles Paris’s own divorce in real time; shares insights from happily divorced couples, international experts, and the latest research; and follows her own divorced parents’ possible reunion. Splitopia calls for a more flexible view of how we wed and how we part, and offers support for creating loving families, whatever the legal relationship status. Divorce is no one’s first choice, but as with other difficult, unwanted experiences, it can lead to growth, deeper connections, and a more fulfilled life. Wendy Paris is a journalist and essayist whose work on marriage, relationships, and contemporary culture has appeared in The New York Times, Psychology Today, Glamour, Brides, QZ.com, Salon.com, Travel & Leisure, Essence, and Marketplace radio. She was a 2014 Fellow with New America Foundation, a 2013 Fellow with Encore.org, a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and a Visiting Artist at the 18th Street Arts Center. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University and blogs about the good divorce at WendyParis.com and PsychologyToday.com. She and her ex-husband and son moved together, apart, from the New York area to Santa Monica, California, while she was writing this book.