We live in a difficult age for intimate relationships. Marriages break up at a rate of 40 to 50 percent, and adultery rates are over the top. The single parent family is the all too common result.

Dr. Eaker Weil's book provides a service by underscoring just what adultery is all about. Adultery has a devastating impact on the entire family system. The emotional damage wrought by this betrayal of trust can hardly be assuaged by a simple "I'm sorry." It is a complex emotional issue and requires that a real sense of remorse be felt before the pattern can be broken. The hurt to husbands, wives, children, and eve to later generations, runs very deep; its wounds are long lasting. Indeed, the legacy of adultery may affect those not even born at the time of the affair. Although the mechanism of these generational patterns is not very clear, we do know that they occur.

This book demonstrates many of the above ideas. If one agrees with these ideas, the book will enlarge and clarify them. If one does not agree, it will stimulate thought and discussion.

It is most of all a practical book that contains both fascinating case histories and helpful advice. In exploring the issues of the emptiness felt by adulterers, the distance-and-pursuit phenomena in relationships, the tools of forgiveness, and how to move from self-pity toward generosity toward others, it takes on the problems of adultery in a very real and meaningful way and proves that it is, no longer, the unforgivable sin. It is a book that should be enormously enlightening and helpful to anyone seeking to mend a marriage or relationship.

Adultery never happens to one person. It is a systemic event which, if unexamined, will continue to wreak havoc on later generations. If it is a sin, that is why it is sinful.

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