It Ended Badly
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"A humorous, well-researched pop history of the disastrous love lives of prominent historical figures, from Lord Byron to Elizabeth TaylorIf you are lying in bed right now, a pint of ice cream in one hand, a bottle of scotch in the other, and this book clenched between your teeth (one tooth is missing from last night's bar fight), with tears streaming down your face over how much you loved, loved, loved your ex, let me commend you on how well you are coping. You could be doing so much worse. So much worse. You could be beheading your ex, or castrating strangers, or starting an exciting new life with a sex doll. YOU ARE A HERO.In It Ended Badly, New York Observer columnist Jennifer Wright guides you through thirteen of the worst breakups of notable figures in history--from Emperor Nero (sadist, murderer several times over), to Viennese artist Oskar Kokoschka (he of the aforementioned sex doll), to Norman Mailer (public stabbing). With her conversational tone and considerable wit, Wright digs deep into the archives to bring these terrible breakups to life. It's fun, pop history that educates, entertains, and really puts your own bad breakup behavior into perspective. It Ended Badly is for anyone who's loved and lost and maybe sent one too many ill-considered, late-night emails to their ex--reminding us that no matter how badly we've behaved, no one is as bad as Henry VIII"--
"If you are lying in bed right now, a pint of ice cream in one hand, a bottle of scotch in the other, and this book clenched between your teeth (one tooth is missing from last night's bar fight), with tears streaming down your face over how much you loved, loved, loved your ex, let me commend you on how well you are coping. You could be doing so much worse. So much worse. You could be beheading your ex, or castrating strangers, or starting an exciting new life with a sex doll. YOU ARE A HERO. In It Ended Badly, New York Observer columnist Jennifer Wright guides you through thirteen of the worst breakups of notable figures in history--from Emperor Nero (sadist, murderer several times over), to Viennese artist Oskar Kokoschka (he of the aforementioned sex doll), to Norman Mailer (public stabbing). With her conversational tone and considerable wit, Wright digs deep into the archives to bring these terrible breakups to life. It's fun, pop history that educates, entertains, and really puts your own bad breakup behavior into perspective. It Ended Badly is for anyone who's loved and lost and maybe sent one too many ill-considered, late-night emails to their ex--reminding us that no matter how badly we've behaved, no one is as bad as Henry VIII"--
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Overall I really enjoyed this. I liked learning about people I didn't know about. I didn't really care for all the author's trying-to-be-funny asides though.
Fun (except for the Oscar Wilde chapter, which made me sad), generally lighthearted collection of stories about terrible breakups from ancient Rome to the 1960s. Particular standouts to me were Lord Byron/Caroline Lamb, John Ruskin/Effie Gray, and oh my god, Norman Mailer is TERRIBLE. The author's tone throughout is breezy and conversational, kind of along the lines of a Drunk History narrator but wayyy more coherent. This is perfect for the type of reading I'm doing now, which is short bites after the baby's asleep. Nothing earth-shattering, and sometimes the ends of the chapters reach a little too hard for a ‘moral of the story,' but a good quick summer read (unless you've been dumped recently, I suppose).
