Book excerpt: The simple message of this book is that divorcing husbands and wives should not allow divorce lawyers to send them off on a fool’s errand that will take what is already a tragedy in their lives and turn it into a nightmare. That is when they are persuaded to employ the law as a weapon in a legal tug of war the object of which is simply to get as much as you can and to give as little as you have to. Rather, they should look to the law as a common framework that they can turn to in their effort to conclude an agreement and thereby get on with their lives. There is a name for this. It is called divorce mediation and it doesn’t take forever or cost a king’s ransom.