Review of Smart Love

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Dattatraya
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Review of Smart Love

Post by Dattatraya »

[Following is a volunteer review of "Smart Love" by Vincent Fudge II.]
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4 out of 4 stars
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Distinguish between wants and needs and create forgiveness, is the message given in the book SMART Love: The MANual  by Vincent Fudge II. A presentation of the day to day behavioural and conversation techniques to improve the relationship between married couple as life partners and create a 'Balanced and Solid family Unit'. On reading, I found in this book, a SMART writing  by the author Vincent Fudge II. My SMART stands for Skillful, Mature,  Aligned, Rigorous and  Trending. Giving the Story of a married couple which is NOT finding the happiness expected by the marriage. Edward (the narrator and main character) who as husband, has extraordinary expectations, describes the 1-year journey through which he worked with his wife on SMART Love project to improve their relationship. His narrative can be called a' Brave Confession' to himself as a devout person. The author has skillfully created picture of a self-devoted man as husband and an ideal demanding woman as wife. It is shown how the disturbing conditions can be aligned by remedial actions but only by rigorous mental and emotional discipline. This subject and topic is trending at present, on all the media platforms available.

Here, we see the typical desires of a typical husband and typical wife- I may call them egoist, self-devoted and even selfish! They always had  frequent quarrels,conflicts and even violent incidents, wherein police were called. It seems when no one is ready to show flexibility or a little sacrifice, there arises the need to have special project like smart love. Edward  who was the knucklehead and Ebony his wife who hasn't been given a specific description, are shown struggling to remove the incompatibilities and make their marriage successful. They have married after having their first child. After marriage their very first year was ' tumultuous--full of episodes, meltdowns, things unsaid, bad behavior—but also had enough good times to not make civil separating the easy and logical solution.' But even then they faced many times, the situation of going for separation. The author says ' Many people discuss what worked for them without describing how they did it.' He in his book has presented the way to get success in marriage.

The positive aspects of the book include realistic narration, honest statements and factual conclusions! For example, author says 'For me, being in a relationship with my wife was a means to the desired outcome of having the kind of stable life and household I wanted for my children'.'I had grown to see my wife as someone I loved but not a true life partner. A life coworker, not someone who made my heart flutter.' The author has included all types of quarrels, conflicts and misunderstandings which are common in daily life of a married couple. The observations, readings, conclusions, predictions, confessions where needed and decisions are in depth and factual.

Some negative aspects in my opinion, are the lengthy and composite sentences which may affect understanding the point. The period of one year assigned for working on the project seems very long. The review description of each month is vast with repetitions of points. Meeting of Edward with the marriage counselor-therapist in October and the subsequent conversation sessions which yield desired change in his mind could have been arranged earlier. Inclusion of a flashback memory of a past event in almost every chapter seems insignificant. The author could have made this book still more powerful by reducing the number of words and controlling the anxiety of perfection. I see his words are right. ' In the absence of having clearly defined lines drawn in the sand, sometimes crossing the line is the only way to know where the line is.'

I am rating this book 4 out of 4 stars. because I liked the straight forward writing and adherence to the truth and facts about the nature of men and women. I appreciate the sincerity of author Vincent Fudge II in taking extraordinary efforts in unfolding the truths of failure and success of Marriage.

This book, I will recommend to all -- men and women equally, as they will get knowledge of  many common misteks and errors found in relationship, which are avoidable with the support of Love and not by owing a person!

******
Smart Love
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