Falling Apart in One Piece -- One Optimist's Journey Through the Hell of Divorce by Stacy Morrison

Falling Apart in One Piece -- One Optimist's Journey Through the Hell of Divorce 
by Stacy Morrison
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 23, 2010)
Pages:  256
4 out of 5 stars
Book Description:  The emotionally charged story of a divorce that brought the surprising gift of grace
Just when Stacy Morrison thought everything in her life had come together, her husband of ten years announced that he wanted a divorce. She was left alone with a new house that needed a lot of work, a new baby who needed a lot of attention, and a new job in the high-pressure world of New York magazine publishing.

Morrison had never been one to believe in fairy tales. As far as she was concerned, happy endings were the product of the kind of ambition and hard work that had propelled her to the top of her profession. But she had always considered her relationship with her husband a safe place in her often stressful life. All of her assumptions about how life works crumbled, though, when she discovered that no amount of will and determination was going to save her marriage.

For Stacy, the only solution was to keep on living, and to listen -- as deeply and openly as possible -- to what this experience was teaching her.

Told with humor and heart, her honest and intimate account of the stress of being a working mother while trying to make sense of her unraveling marriage offers unexpected lessons of love, forgiveness, and dignity that will resonate with women everywhere.

My take:  Phew! I don't have to write the story of my divorce; Stacy Morrison has done it for me, and better than I ever could have in Falling Apart in One Piece.

One day, and seemingly out of nowhere, Stacy's husband Chris declared he was done with their marriage. Morrison takes the reader through the journey of divorce, destruction, and rebuilding in an impeccably written memoir. The piles of troubles that only begin with her divorce are revealed honestly, with a rawness mingled with elegance in the telling.

With Morrison as the guide I was able to navigate through my own story of divorce with moments of insight and moments of, "Yes, that's what I've been trying to say." And also moments of vulnerability, anger, and even a few tears. Any marriage has a story, and to realize that some of that story must be rewritten to become the tale of the present can be a startling surprise. In Falling Apart in One Piece, Morrison takes the reader through that surprise and sums up her narrative with hope that the pieces of the kaleidoscope will rearrange themselves into patterns of ever-changing beauty. 

Stacy Morrison, author of Falling Apart in One Piece: One Optimist's Journey Through the Hell of Divorce, is the editor in chief of Redbook magazine.  She was formerly executive editor at Marie Claire and editor in chief of Modern Bride, and has appeared as an expert on women, love, sex, money, and more on Today, CNN Moneyline, and The Early Show, among many other television programs.  Stacy lives in Brooklyn with her son, Zack.

For more information please visit http://www.fallingapartinonepiece.com/ and follow the author on Facebook.