Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage is a beautifully written eulogy for the loss of a relationship that had been loving, trusting, 'traditional' (in the best, unironic sense of the word)--riveting reading for its heartrending candor. Through an examination of her marriage--and the social expectations that defined it--Belle Burden examines the very nature of intimacy, vulnerability, and, in practical terms, the naïveté of many a young woman who falls in love with a 'perfect' mate. Her questions are not just, What went wrong? But, more fundamentally, What is the nature of human personality? Are we all playing 'roles?'.