I liked the beginning of this book more than the end. The narrator is not a likeable person but he's understandable. I thought the parts where he talks about the problems in his marriage and the reasons for his affair, you could at least see where he was coming from even if you didn't agree with what he did. It was honest. But by the time he had to go out on his own the book became less of a "reverse love story" and more just the endless whining of a naval-gazing artist. The whole war-wash thing was obnoxiously overwrought and the ending tied things up too neatly in a bow. I never really got the feeling that any problems in the marriage would be fixed - just that the author needed to end it. I didn't get the motivation for any of the ending.