Generation Ex : Tales from the Second Wives' Club

Bloomsbury USA, 2002. Near Fine. Providing solace, advice and commiseration for anyone trying to make sense of a family tree gone haywire with divorce and remarriage, this hilarious l atest effort by novelist and journalist Karbo (Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me) is like a fresh breeze setting everything right. From the first page, she grabs her readers by the shoulders and gives them a good, hearty shake, advising them, for example, that when one has to coexist with one's own ex , spouses' exes and the children of the various unions, "failing to know wh en to shut up is a genuine liability." Most importantly, she advises, one s hould fall silent when compelled to speak uncharitably about one's ex to th e child one had with that person. In fact, Karbo emphasizes, many exes stay locked in old patterns for the sake of their children, resulting in a limb o she terms "divarriage." Of course, children can also provide a handy excu se for maintaining contact with an ex. Her numerous evocations of scenes be tween ex-spouses achieve an unerring blend of screwball comedy, tragic dram a, feel-good fantasy and stalker flicks. Engagingly relating such incidents as the time her partner's ex-wife methodically cut up several pairs of Kar bo's underwear with cuticle scissors, along with excerpts from a book of po etry by her best friend's ex-husband called My Ex-Wife Looks Like Ginger Ro gers, Karbo makes ample use of her narrative instinct and canny eye for hum an foibles.