It's a weird book - a weird structure. Most of it is a diary/novel written by a girl of thirteen (fourteen, fifteen, I think she's sixteen by the end of that part), telling of her parents' divorce for incompatibility. She is, of course, delighted at all the changes and new things she gets to see, and she's an incurable blabber-mouth - she keeps "figuring things out" and then explaining them to the principals. Telling her father that she's delighted he's going to marry again, for instance. Poor man. That part has a happy ending, though. Then the last part is her writing about her own marriage, which is stumbling on much the same blocks - and her mother talks her right out of the choice she's made, without letting her get a word in edgewise. That scene is really silly, except it's pretty powerful as well. And happy ending, again. Glad I read it, though I have no intention of ever rereading. It is preaching against divorce, though it doesn't read as too preachy to me - not wonderfully interesting, but not direct preaching either. ( )

I enjoyed the social details of the time in this novel, but it turned into too much of a preachy treatise against divorce for my taste. I read the whole thing, though, and ended up liking the young Mary Marie (who narrates the bulk of the book) better than either her parents or her adult self.