The Lifestyle

I have a friend that I’ve known since middle school. We weren’t really close back then, and then we went to different high schools. At some point we started hanging out again, on a platonic level only, and managed to stay friends for quite some time after that…until he got married. His wife didn’t appreciate my presence in his life, which was fine. What blew my mind was that he got married in the first place. This man didn’t believe in monogamy. I can’t imagine she was unaware of his beliefs before they got married, so I was baffled as to how that union came to be. Years later, he and I had a brief conversation about how his marriage almost ended (I feel like the reason might be obvious), but they salvaged it by becoming swingers. I don’t know how a married almost wrecked by infidelity could be saved by having relations outside the marriage on a regular basis, but it really did work for them, so, um, yay? Based on this book, it would seem like they’re not alone. I understand that this particular lifestyle isn’t new, but the public-ness of it is new(ish). Blame it on the internet I suppose. So now we’re not only hearing that people “swing,” but there’s things like open relationships, polyamory, thruples (I have no idea how that might even be spelled), etc. These are all adults, so to each their own. This book made me realize it’s far more mainstream than I thought it was. This book also points out that these lifestyle choices can’t fix the fundamentally broken things in any relationship. I appreciated how Hahn provided a variety of relationships that could possibly seek out a “lifestyle” like this, and how it affected them all. I really enjoyed this book. Hahn created a group of friends in different places in their lives and relationships. I found myself rooting for Georgina, no matter how things worked out for her. Hahn wrote a witty and emotional tale that was thoroughly enjoyable.