Cleaving

Marriage is like a rain forest Vicki Covington writes in Cleaving. The story of a marriage contains all that grows in the canopy all that is visible from an aerial or public view. The understory of a marriage is the place where . . . we struggle fight and conceive. It''s the place where compost is made where anything can grow including forgiveness. Told in the authors'' alternating voices Cleaving is both the story and the understory of a marriage.Childhood acquaintances Vicki and Dennis meet again in their twenties and wed. they promise each other nothing and get more than they''d bargained for: alcoholism infidelity infertility uncertainty. tumult gives way to sobriety parenthood and meaningful work but a yearning remains. In a quest to root themselves in the larger world they embark on a mission to dig water wells in Central America assuaging a spiritual thirst by addressing a practical need. Yet even this is part of the story-the visible overarching canopy-of the marriage. The understory-and the triumph of this haunting book which is neither sentimental nor cynical-is its portrayal of the eddying of passion through the institution that enshrines but cannot contain it.A soulful and unsparing portrait of the forces that threaten-and sustain-a relationship over time.