This Story Will Change: After the Happily Ever After

by Elizabeth Crane

Rachel Cusk meets Nora Ephron in this intimate and evolving portrait about the end of a marriage and how life can fall apart and be rebuilt in wonderful and surprising ways

One minute Elizabeth Crane and her husband of fifteen years are fixing up their old house in Upstate New York, finally setting down roots after stints in Chicago, Texas, and Brooklyn, when his unexpected admission—I’m not happy—changes everything. Suddenly she finds herself separated and in couples therapy, living in an apartment in the city with an old friend and his kid. It’s understood that the apartment and bonus family are temporary, but the situation brings unexpected comfort and much-needed healing for wounds even older than her marriage.

Crafting the story as the very events chronicled are unfolding, Crane writes from a place of guarded possibility, capturing through vignettes and collected moments a semblance of the real-time practice of healing. At turns funny and dark, with moments of poignancy, This Story Will Change is an unexpected and moving portrait of a woman in transformation, a chronicle of how even the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are bound to change.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, Divorce, Marriage, Autobiography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 9, 2022

About the author

Elizabeth Crane is the author of two novels We Only Know So Much (now a major motion picture) and The History of Great Things (Harper Perennial) and four collections of short stories: When the Messenger Is Hot and All This Heavenly Glory (Little, Brown) and You Must Be This Happy to Enter (Akashic Books), and Turf (Counterpoint). Her work has been adapted for the stage by Steppenwolf Theater and featured on NPR's Selected Shorts. She is a winner of the Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award.

Reviews

[Kate The Book Addict · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Counterpoint Press for my ARC of Author Elizabeth Crane’s September 2022 release of “This Story Will Change” for an honest review. 📚 ❤️
A memoir of surviving divorce is obviously not going to be an easy read but nor is it intended to be. Author Elizabeth Crane bears her heart and soul in this book in such a selfless and brutally honest way that we’ve all identified with on some level, as we’ve all lost someone we thought would be there “forever”. But the author doesn’t leave us in this world of sorrow and pain, as she takes positive steps to move forward in a healthy way, healing and growing into a new self. The book is well-written, intriguing and absolutely an emotional roller coaster that lands on firm ground of new knowledge in one’s self. 💕

[Sage Parsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crane’s memoir reminded me in some ways of Machado’s “In the Dream House” (one of my favorites) because it bent the traditional memoir format with short chapters, a more fluid narrative style and a breaking of the boundaries between reader and writer. The fact that almost the entire memoir was written in the third person seemed very effective to heighten aspects of Crane’s incredibly emotionally vulnerable story. The reason I only give this book three stars is because it did not resonate with me. Unlike some memoirs, which talk about incredibly difficult life events that many of us may never experience but still manage to be universal, Crane’s writing felt like it would really resonate for a much smaller audience of women who have freshly and somewhat unexpectedly gotten out of a marriage of many years. If that is you then I imagine you will find a lot of solace in this book, if that is not you, I don’t think this is the current read for you.

[Sarah Jaffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not an unbiased reviewer: I was going through a messy breakup in the same small Hudson Valley town as Elizabeth Crane and we did a good bit of crying together. But I'm also a writer and a critic and I don't cry easily at books and I'm sobbing again not because of the memories but because this book is beautiful and it broke my heart a little bit in a different way than I expected. It's great, in other words.

[Elisabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a book for me. I couldn't get into the writing style. I found the stream of consciousness repetitive.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good. I love how it was nothing at all and yet everything that caused the divorce. Life under close examination is a logical chain of events or total nonsense, just depending on how you look at it that day. Loved the voice and how I got to know a person so well at a horrible moment. It makes me hopeful.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book began with a breathless introduction, all about a marriage and did those watching know it would not really be happily ever after and did they not say anything and if they had said anything would it have changed the way things are at the moment, this moment in time, when things are not at all the way one would have expected, etc. It didn't really draw me in; instead, I thought, okay, James Joyce, let's see what else you have to say. :)

But I liked the way this woman was honest about things, even the way that it took her some time to eventually admit that she was not without blame in the way things went. I respected her a lot more. She seemed very real. And as weird as it sounds, I love the fact that she cried so much over the marriage's demise, rather than just moving on. It showed her real commitment to the relationship.

I think I'll check out some of her novels.

[Cam Kovach · Rating 4 out of 5]

The demise of a marriage, written in a stream-of-consciousness style that is an acquired taste. Not easy to get into, but once engaged with the story, it evolves into a story about two people who grow apart and one person, the writer, who finds herself.

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, but way too whiny for my tastes.

[Mehrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very complex and nuanced memoir about a marriage. It can be choppy at times but it felt immersive in a way that you can really feel the confusion and sadness of the author

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot believe this book is not more highly rated. It is an incredibly intimate and tender look at a crumbling marriage. I love how she plays with the traditional form of memoir. It was so sophisticated and didn’t read at all gimmicky to me. It really, really worked and I highly recommend.

[Sara Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a huge fan of the writing style. It was a tough memoir to get into and I never really connected with the author’s emotions.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. Sharp, funny, swift, true sharing of the hard realities of breakup. I’m a Crane fan from way back, and it’s great to see her still writing with such freshness and hard-won humor and honesty. There’s some pieces that took my breath away.

Very well done.

[Libriar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir about a seemingly decent marriage ending fairly peacefully is told in the third person. That took some getting used to at first but it grew on me. This is a fairly mundane story but it works - perhaps because it allows any married woman to see herself in this story. The ending leaves readers with no resolution which is disappointing because in my mind there is an obvious choice Crane should make. It definitely sets things up perfectly for a sequel that I would absolutely read. Crane narrates the audiobook and although she will not be getting offers to do other authors' audiobooks, I always prefer the author as the narrator in memoirs.

[Samantha M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writer Elizabeth Crane’s memoir of personal heartbreak after a long marriage is an anomaly in the piles of typical break-up stories. Rather than dragging readers through a mundane chronological recap, Crane leads with prose-forward vignettes that feature nuanced moments within a relationship and how a couple may or may not fall apart. Her deliberation, though perhaps raw for anyone freshly severed from a partner, is interesting in the way she expresses the little moments in small chapters (with some “chapters” being a single line). She asks many questions for the reader to consider of their own relationships while reflecting on her situation not as a means of circular rumination, but posing how one can grow (either separate or together) from the experience as time passes. The chapter “What Happened” opens with a series of questions, “What do you tell people when they ask you what happened? What is the truth to you? Are you so sure you know? How are you so sure? How?” The whole book is filled with smart and sincere zig-zags of emotion that the reader may agree or disagree with, teasing out the ideals of what many believe our relationships hold.

I had originally listened to this as an audiobook, read by the author in model Gen X candor, but found myself drawn to wanting to see her words arranged on the page. Little moments, like the back-to-back chapters “They Got a King-Size Bed” and “They Got an L-Shaped Sofa” inspect how spaces may be created within a relationship for good and for ill. Crane’s use of third-person, referencing “the wife” and “the husband” throughout, notes an observer’s distance that isn’t cold but tender, humorous, and at times self-depricating in its omniscience. I found this a soothing, cathartic read and fantastic journaling fodder for my own exploration as a writer. Though I plowed through it in one go, it can be a fine read in short bursts to better examine Crane’s impulse to keep moving forward.

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wasn’t a fan of the narrative technique and POV throughout this book. I found it confusing for the story to be told in third person but recognized it was necessary for this story to not read like a stream of consciousness diary (which, it still did). I’m not sure this story was for me but sometimes stories need to be told all the same.

[Lori Rees · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a memoir about an end of a marriage. It’s very readable and sped through first three-quarters. Near the end it became a bit tedious.

This book was not on my radar until a reviewer I like gave this book high marks. I am not necessarily interested in breakup stories. I’m very married and recently read two other memoirs about people headed for divorce, so Ive had my fill. This book is a very specific story about a husband leaving with not much else apart from living with a friend and his daughter post-divorce.

I give five stars for writing style and three stars for the contents. Maybe it’s just me but it seems that the author lacks awareness in her part of the breakup. There is a lot of self-convincing. Some false-pride. There is a part where the author talks about hard and honest conversations but we don’t know the contents of these honest conversations, and that’s okay, but it makes for a somewhat dishonest and disjointed retelling.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely form and function combo that, thankfully, did not wrap up neatly. Was especially moved by knowing that she wrote it as she experienced it (despite my also knowing it eventually entered an editors hands of course), which allowed for emotional highs and lows that felt very true to the process of an unraveling relationship— days of strength and clarity, days of confusion and emotional relapse. Definitely recommend.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just a captivating read. It seems somewhat weird to say I enjoyed this, but I truly did. This was such a beautifully done story of how things can fall apart. What I appreciated is that it wasn't told in a linear manner because these types of stories aren't linear. And there was still good stuff, too. It was a raw look at how a marriage comes together, is, and falls apart. I also really liked the short essay format. I picked this up because of the Terrible Reading Club (and not sure I would have found my way to it otherwise!), and I'm so glad I did.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Relationships, especially ones where marriage is involved, are not linear and this book followed that “concept” so closely I’d consider it tailgating. More often than not it hurt my brain to skip around and attempt to read between the messy lines. While that definitely and surely puts you as close to the headspace of the author during that time, as a reader it was exhausting and at times, confusing. I didn’t go into this book hoping to take away some words of advice or even some witty quips but I also didn’t expect to walk away empty handed.

[Carly Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m working on my couples counseling skills so it made sense to give this memoir of a separation a try. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. It’s true that a big part of recovery from heartbreak is patience with big emotions but it felt repetitive and boring here. Overall, while if felt for the author, I wasn’t really rooting for her or the relationship and was not engaged.

[Natalie Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is mainly written in the 3rd person which gave it a very different feel for a memoir. There are moments when the author reverts to 1st person which makes it feel more personal.

[nomadreader (Carrie D-L) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly incredible.

[Lua · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of marriage and divorce - a very quick read. It felt very honest. I liked it a lot.

[Molly Durava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this- a page turning read!!!

[Laura]

I felt like I inhaled this book! Not usually a fan of short chapters but it worked for me in this book. Refreshing in how the author revisited her memories as well.

[Ika Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very annoying New York divorce memoir which never feels emotionally honest and is about 95% humblebragging

[Sejal Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and have listened to the audiobook (read by the author) many times. I appreciated the form of short chapters, vignettes.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I liked the simple prose. Over time, reading this became tedious because the meandering stream of consciousness style began feeling erratic, and the point of view added confusion. This seemed hastily compiled, like the author began writing as a form of self-therapy to process the end of her marriage, and then published it as is. I was hoping for a more cogent narrative.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Better than We are Too Many but not as good as You Could Make this Place Beautiful.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first heard of this book I thought, “I’ve got to read that; that’s MY story” (longish marriage, spouse suddenly not happy, marriage over). If you’ve never experienced this particular heartbreak, you may find the writer to be whiny and overwrought. But she captures what it’s like when your brain is in shock and desperately trying to make sense of an incredibly painful situation. I was struck by how specifically similar some of our thoughts were, even though I don’t think she and I are much alike outside of having this same experience. I normally would not enjoy this writing style: stream-of-consciousness sliding back and forth between first- and third-person, however, it suits this story. I don’t know if it’s a testament to the underlying humor and hope in the writing or to my own healing, or both, but this book surprisingly did not make me cry!