Book excerpt: For anyone who wants to make a new marriage work or an old marriage stronger, here is inspiration and insight that no marriage counselor or psychologist could give you. In the wake of open marriage, marriage contracts, and no-fault divorce, the authors of this remarkable book have uncovered what it is that can make a marriage last a lifetime in these tumultuous times. Turning to the real experts (couples whose marriages have withstood the test of time), they have found that for all the striking dissimilarities in successful marriages, at the core of each is a real and definable commitment by the partners to each other and to the marriage. In the course of their research the authors have sat in hundreds of kitchens and living rooms listening to husbands and wives talk about how they have forged their relationships. The marriages range from two-paycheck, childless relationships to male-dominated families with a wife and kids at home, from affluent urban unions to marriages plagued with financial problems, from those fate has blessed to those it has been less kind to. What is highlighted again and again is the importance of putting marriage first in your life, of giving time a chance, and of believing that the good times will be renewed if a couple can get by the bad. Giving Time a Chance is a must for any couple planning to marry, for any couple thinking of divorce, for any couple wondering whether romance can be renewed, or for anyone questioning whether marriage still has a role in modern society. Here is a book for our times—a model of marriage in modern America.