But You Seemed So Happy
“I can’t remember a book about divorce I liked as much since Nora Ephron wrote HEARTBURN.”
— Kim France, founding editor of Lucky magazine and co-host of Everything is Fine podcast
“Kimberly Harrington is back with another honest, tender, and often hilarious book on the end of a modern marriage.”
— Kate Baer, NYT bestselling author of WHAT KIND OF WOMAN
But You Seemed So Happy is an honest, intimate biography of a marriage, from its heady, idealistic, and easy beginnings to it slowly coming apart, and finally to its evolution into something completely unexpected. As she probes what it means when everyone assumes you’re happy as long as you’re still married, Harrington skewers the casual way we make life-altering decisions when we’re young. Ultimately, this moving and funny memoir-in-essays is an irreverent act of forgiveness—of ourselves, our partners, and the relationships that have run their course but will always hold a permanent place in our lives.
“Intimate and raw yet meticulously scrubbed of the slightest tinge of self-pity. Harrington explores the pain and intricacies of a marriage and its dissolution with a ruthless, unflinching honesty and gallows humor that makes you feel like you buried a body with her. Did you? Maybe you did.”
—Emily Flake, cartoonist for The New Yorker
“Essayist Kimberly Harrington (Amateur Hour: Motherhood in Essays and Swear Words) brings her signature wit to But You Seemed So Happy: A Marriage, in Pieces and Bits, 30 essays reflecting on the quiet unraveling of her marriage. Though each piece is decidedly personal, the collection feels universal, encouraging all readers—partnered or not, happily or less so—to reexamine the common narratives around marriage and divorce.
An amicable divorce is not unusual, so why this book? Perhaps because of the couple's unconventional decision to separate formally while continuing to live and parent together, maintaining the family structure for themselves and their children. Harrington navigates the quirks of this arrangement but never gets bogged down in the minutiae of her experience. Instead, she chooses to focus on those questions that weigh on everyone: How did I get here? What do I still have to discover? When is good enough not good enough? “
—Shelf Awareness
“In these piercing essays, Harrington (Amateur Hour) performs an autopsy on her deteriorating marriage. In her compassionate treatment of a touchy subject, Harrington flips the divorce narrative on its head to underscore the beauty of choosing one’s own path. Those struggling with the decision to stay or leave a marriage would do well to pick this up (and grab a highlighter).”
—Publishers Weekly
“Kimberly Harrington is back with another honest, tender, and often hilarious book on the end of a modern marriage. No matter your relationship status, BUT YOU SEEMED SO HAPPY begs the question — what are we all doing here? I laughed, I cried, I found myself in the pages over and over again.”
— Kate Baer, NYT bestselling author of WHAT KIND OF WOMAN
“A brilliant collection of essays … deeply felt.”
—Zibby Owens, “Best New Under-the-Radar Books Coming Out This Fall” on Katie Couric Media
“Self-effacing and self-absorbed.”
—My best friend from high school
“[Readers] will be rewarded with chronological essays brimming with witty observations, biting humor, and thoughtful commentary on courtship, marriage, parenting, happiness, inertia, and yes, divorce. This is neither a bitter screed nor a heartbreaking sob story, but rather a brutally honest, revealing account of how two people came together, followed an expected path, consciously evaluated their relationship, and decided to end their marriage.”