Strangers, A Memoir of a Marriage by Belle Burden    

So many people (women!) have read this book or heard the author interviewed on the morning television shows that this review may be entirely redundant!

For the few who are not familiar with the book, Stranger is a memoir of divorce by wealthy and posh Belle Burden. Belle’s husband (posh too) shockingly leaves her days after the family decamps from Manhattan to their home on Martha’s Vineyard to wait out the pandemic. Married for 20+ years, they have three children.

Belle is stunned and deeply saddened. And then she remembers the pre-nuptial agreement, the one in which she agreed to her husband’s amendments against her lawyer’s advice. Since their lawyer retired, there is a bit of a scramble to find this document. Belle admits later that she would have destroyed the agreement if she’d found it first. But hubby finds it.  Now she’s stunned, saddened, and concerned a chunk of her property will be taken from her.  

There not much doubt that Belle will be OK. She has money of her own and a supportive family. But her grief is real and almost painful to read. She is a fine writer, and the book moves quickly. But in the end, I wondered what was the point? Was it worth detonating her and her children’s life? Why–revenge, catharsis, literary ambition, celebrity?

I enjoyed this book, but you can get the gist of it by listening to Belle’s interview on the Oprah podcast or many other media outlets.