It's fiction, anyway, so calm down.
How to be Single is a novel written by the female half of the pair that wrote He's Just Not that Into You. So I figured, at the very least, it's gotta be witty. Witty and probably somewhat autobiographical. It's about four women (Again, I seem to get myself into these books with four women), one of whom is an author who is setting off on a journey around the world to learn about different country's dating cultures to find out why America has the highest divorce rate in the world - what are we doing wrong? Or, as some might come to think upon further introspection, what are we doing right (just keep reading)?
She travels to South America, to Greenland, China, India, France, and learns about dating rituals and customs in each place she visits. India has a divorce rate of less than 1% if I remember correctly, and something she wrote about India struck me as interesting - they have arranged marriages, which most people in America seem to think is backwards and oppressive, but when you think about it, who knows you better than your parents? Your parents are married, so they know what it takes to have a marriage (albeit maybe not a successful one, but that's a story for a different day). They aren't looking for romantic love, necessarily, Hollywood love, they're looking for a good match. Maybe there's something to be said for that. Then again, what about spousal abuse rates in India? What about the cultural stigma attached to divorce? Is it a different level of openness to arranged marriages, or a different level of prejudice against divorce? The combination of both? There are two sides to every coin, after all.
So the main character travels around, her friends join her for some of the trips, and while she's away they all take care of one another back home in New York. One thing I will say for Tuccillo is that she doesn't pander to the expectations of the Happily Ever After ending, which, if you've read He's Just Not that Into You, you could probably expect. One must be open to the idea that you are your own true love, which for people who are reading a book called How to be Single, is probably the best answer you could get. To put it in the words of Carrie Bradshaw,
There are those [relationships] that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.
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