BOOK REVIEW | NOT MARRIAGE MATERIAL | SUE BAVEY (ed.)

 

As it’s Valentine’s Day, today’s review is Not Marriage Material. A collection of stories edited by Sue Bavey. This collection of stories about relationships is not your typical common or garden book about love, but a range of stories about those relationships that never got off the ground or had lucky escapes from. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

“There are plenty more fish in the sea.”
“You’ll find the right one when you least expect it.”

How often have we all heard those lines? Sometimes we fall in love with people who are not right for us. Or are exactly right, but the timing or circumstances when we meet them are all wrong. For many of us, it's just a bump in the road as we eventually find our perfect partner. Others are just not marriage material and never settle down.

In this non-fiction anthology, twenty authors and poets celebrate the ones who got away and the ones they were lucky enough to get away from. These relationships may not have ended in marriage, but they have provided us with entertaining stories. Join us as we share our experiences of romances that were not marriage material!

Not Marriage Material features contributions by:

Lora Arbrador, S Bavey, Syd Blackwell, Elora Canne, Chris Chute, Catherine Cummins, Christopher Evans, Joel Glover, Judy Kiehart, Bjørn Larssen, Lizbeth Meredith, Irene Pylypec, Shirley Read-Jahn, John Cornelius Rogers, Maximilian Sam, Dvora Treisman, Isabelle Wagner, Sue Wald, Pia Wood, Rod Young

REVIEW

For all you hopeless romantics out there, this is not the book for you. Or it might be the book for you, I don’t know, as (to nick a line from Public Image Ltd’s back Catalogue) This is not a Love Song.

Not Marriage Material, edited by Sue Bavey, is a collection of stories that chronicle loves lost, loves gladly seen the back of and loves not quite right.

The collection is comprised of twenty nonfiction accounts of experiences of the authors who open events that have happened in the past.

Some of the stories look back with fondness to lost loves, whilst others recount tales of those narrow escapes. Some are bit cringey and you think thank God that that one went on there merry way, and others are just sweet (please someone hit me! I have never used that term in my life!)

Whilst there isn’t a bad story in the collection there were standouts that I really enjoyed, from Bjørn Larrson’s ever growing list, to Sue Bavey’s Fiery Angel.

This is an enjoyable collection that is told with frankness, humour and all the bits in between to keep you entertained.

The perfect antidote to all that saccharine sweetness.