Last week, Salon ran an interview with Lori Gottlieb, the author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. We added our two cents here.

And the other day, The Daily Beast ran a piece by Anne Milford and Jennifer Gauvain, authors of How Not to Marry the Wrong Guy. You’ll be glad to read they take a considerably different view. 

Read it and smile.

Salon interviewed Lori Gottlieb, the author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough.

According to the article by Sarah Hepola:

As in the 2008 Atlantic essay that started it all, Gottlieb’s depiction of single womanhood can be practically monstrous, a misery parade of boring happy hours and appointments with the bikini waxer, nights staring at a phone that won’t ring. She uses her life as a cautionary tale: Make the right choices, little missy, or you could end up like me. As she explains in the book, “I’m trying to help. It’s kind of like those graphic anti-drunk driving public service announcements that show people crashing into poles and getting killed … It’s not until you see people ending up brain-dead, lying in a coma in the hospital and surrounded by beeping monitors, that the message has an impact.”

But Gottlieb, who readily admits she really wants a husband and understands some women just don’t, tells Hepola that her book is less about settling and more about not insisting that a man be perfect. (Note to all humans: Nobody is perfect. Not even me.)

And I can wrap my head around that, for sure. Unfortunately, I’ve met many women (and many men, for that matter) who did settle for a partner who had a loosey-goosey grip on the truth, resisted the idea of fidelity, spent too much time passing gas in front of the TV, and so on.

So I’m not buying into ‘get ‘em while the going’s good.’ Sure, the decent guy you dated in college may be happily married with three kids now, but, if you’re a realistic person, you probably didn’t marry him for a reason. Old boyfriends usually look better in hindsight. Chances are, if you caught up with him for a cup of coffee, you’d remember the quirks that made you doubt you’d ever live happily ever after together.

Take a look at the article and let us know what you think. And if you’ve read the book (we haven’t), we’d love to get your take on it, too.