I almost put this book down after the first 100 pages, but I decided to read 'one more chapter', and I'm glad I did because i don't think it was a complete waste of time. 
 The sparse, almost wooden, recollection of the author's childhood in the first 100 pages wasn't aided by telling the story in the present tense, which seems more like a gimmick to ATTEMPT to bring some life into the story. 
 Honestly, this book didn't get good until the infidelity started heating up. Perhaps it is in the expectations? Finishing the book, I was struck by several things: 
 1) All the psychologizing in the world doesn't change the fact that adultery is just plan sinful. It languishes the hearts of those who partake, and damages the trust of those victimized by it (the faithful spouse and children). The explanations Pearlman reaches for seem overly complex, when if you look at it Biblically, it's quite simple. Choose to sin, choose to suffer" (James MacDonald), and in a family, no one person suffers in isolation. I also found her ex-husbands tendency to explain things by the 'gods'...interesting. 
 2) Is there any surprise at the incredible selfishness of the men portrayed? The selfishness to think an affair has 'nothing to do with the wife and children' or is 'just something for me'. The selfishness to spend holidays or evenings with the mistress, while the family goes without dad (due to whatever lie they are fed) or waits for hours for dinner. 
 3) This is as much as book about Pearlman's sexuality as it is about infidelity. I found some parts to be embarrassingly personal. I'm really quite shocked that she would write such things about herself and share them publicly and that, if she was comfortable, others in her life (particularly her ex-husband) wouldn't object. Language (F bombs galore) in the context of strong emotions, eroticism (from childish experimentalism, to pre-marriage fornication, to marital love & sex, etc) as well as the struggle to picture and degrade adulterous encounters make for a raw, almost profane, read. I would not recommend this book to anyone under college age. 
 4) The insights into a couple of cases she counseled were excellent. Particularly the woman married to the legislator. 
 5) I come from generations of faith and monogamy. The value for me in reading this work is seeing how the other half lives, and it isn't pretty. Advantages were the plethera of perspectives, from the womanizing adulturer who is constantly switching, to the man who is married yet retains a single mistress for decades, to the newly caught man, to the destruction of a marriage, the many facets of infidelity are represented. 
 6) But there is no resolution to this work, and if there is, it is utterly unsatisfying. Sure, they divorce and she moves on, but to what? The sexual freedom she seems to value is at odds with her quest for monogamy the entire book, and any new relationship sees doomed to the SAME mistakes. There is such a desire to blame the infidelity on the man himself, and surely he needs to table up to his lack of self-control. But there is a complete failure to recognize that a sexually free lifestyle is the root of the problem. Because of that underlying foundational error, this is a inevitably disheartening read.