Tag: breakups

A late bloomer as far as relationships go, my first encounter with heartbreak came from the track. It was junior year. The district meet: all big Texas sky and girls next to me adjusting hair ties and heat waves shimmering ahead. At that point in my life, I had devoted myself entirely to running. I […]

In the aftermath of rape, Alison Kinney discovers that a new lover who helps you to heal can just as easily betray you.

Essayist Leslie Jamison visits Zagreb’s Museum of Broken Relationships.

How finding someone else’s engagement ring helped Jenny Klion let go of her own.

Sarah Bregel takes a close look at her marriage after two kids, and wonders, how hard is too hard?

En route to a wedding, Alana Massey is haunted by the ghosts of relationships past.

Diana Spechler recalls fleeing her life in New York City for a new one with a painter in his village in central Mexico.

Jen Doll tries to make sense of a breakup that happened the day before a romantic vacation — and blindsided her in the same ways the presidential election did.

A central agony in these books is alienation—not only the pain of abuse, or heartbreak, or evaporation, but the pain of having your pain appropriated. The books themselves reclaim the hurt for their authors, and whatever their literary merit, they offer at least some catharsis for the reader, who can always relate. Rock songs make […]