How to Be a Husband

by Tim Dowling Narrated by Tim Dowling

Overview

The much-loved Guardian columnist asks what it takes to make a husband, and looks to his own married life to provide the answer. Anything resembling advice should be taken at reader's own risk. You'll never get divorced if you never get married. Not even your granny minds if you live in sin anymore. And if you're single you can choose curtains without somebody else butting in. So why bother with marriage? It can't just be an easy way round having to buy your own deodorant. Guardian columnist Tim Dowling is a husband of some twenty years. His marriage is resounding proof that even the most impossible partnership can work out for the best. Some of the time. So while this book is called 'How To be a Husband', it's not really a how-to guide at all. Nor is it a compendium of petty remarks and brinkmanship - although it contains plenty of both. You may pick up a few DIY hints. You might learn that while marriage is founded on love, it endures through bloody hard work. Most likely it will make you whimper with the laughter of painful recognition. How To be a Husband is a cautionary tale about throwing caution to the wind. It's the strange romance of two people consenting to share a roll-on. It's a new manifesto for marriage and an answer to why, even when we suck at it, we stick at it

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Reading Dowling is a lot like reading Erma Bombeck – if Erma Bombeck had a penis and an English wife and resembled, at times, ‘a frightened potato.’ With a sense of humor that’s dagger-sharp and endearingly self-deprecating, Dowling describes himself as less alpha male than lambda male – and he deserves to be better known in America. Though the title seems skewed towards a male audience, the book will find female fans as well. Whether Dowling is writing about marriage, parenting, love or death, I’d follow him anywhere.” —Margo Rabb, The New York Times Book Review

"Though he laments this age of ‘The End of Men,’ Dowling has not written a mansplaining manual or a How to Have It All book for dudes. It’s more How to Hold On to the Best Thing You’ve Got. While some guys may read portions aloud to their spouses — ‘See, it’s not just me!’ — I suspect most of us will discreetly take a few notes and maybe even try some things out. Note to shoppers: This book is a great Valentine’s Day gift for today’s chronically disappointing husband. Dowling recoils from the ‘self-help book’ label. ‘Do not be like me,’ he stresses. But in one way, we do want to be like him. Dowling’s wife — identified in the text only as ‘the English girl’ or ‘my wife,’ but revealed as ‘Sophie’ in the dedication — comes off as one of those irresistible British television characters, never as cool in the American version of the show.... No, Dowling and Sophie don’t have one of those ‘I love you . . . I love you, too’ marriages; they’re more of a ‘You’ll be sorry when I’m dead’ couple. But for those moments when life together gets overwhelming, Dowling offers one perfect piece of advice: 'Never underestimate the tremendous healing power of sitting down together from time to time to speak frankly and openly about the marital difficulties facing other couples you know.'" —Washington Post

“Dowling's a very fresh and smart writer…there's a proper laugh every couple of pages, and as often as not it arises from the texture of the situation, the tone of voice, the characters…But as well as being funny, which he has to be, Dowling is sometimes plangent – as in a chapter about his mother's death – and he is more often than not wise.”—Sam Leith, The Guardian (UK)

“Although not a self-help book, nuggets of unexpected, useful advice on how to be a good husband can be found in the author’s witticisms… Dowling’s entertaining commentary on marriage will resonate with men and women alike. Tongue-in-cheek observations on married life coupled with poignant moments of true love and grief.” – Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170997909
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	02/05/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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