Cindy Chupack is a writer extraordinaire: She's had columns in Glamour, Oprah, The New York Times, et al; she wrote the best-selling essay collection The Between Boyfriends Book; and she won Golden Globes and Emmys for her work on "Sex and the City" and "Modern Family." It's no surprise, then, that The Longest Date: Life as a Wife is a truly enjoyable read, a collection of essays about love and marriage that hits a range of notes—madcap, poignant, self-deprecating, thoughtful—and ultimately makes it sound like there's fun to be had when Cindy and Ian are around.
Ian is Chupack's second husband; her first marriage, when she was 25, ended at 27 when her husband realized he was gay. When she met Ian, after 13 years of dating (and fodder for "Sex and the City"), he cautioned Chupack he was a bad-boy type who'd break her heart—but he ended up proposing to her, on horseback, on the beach, at sunset. All of this was excellent, can't-make-this-stuff-up material for a comedy writer, to be sure. Their relationship to date, as Chupack's essays demonstrate, has been more of the same—a combination of funny and sweet, aggravating and lovely, depending on the activity. And lots of activities are covered here, from learning to cook, to a mammogram, to getting a giant St. Bernard, to attending a sex show in Thailand.
The essays on struggles with infertility are especially affecting (Ian shares his experience, too), as are Chupack's musings on how her family has made her a better person—perhaps one better equipped to write "this book for every woman who ever was or will be blindsided by the reality of marriage: to validate and celebrate life as a wife."
