"The Average American Marriage: A Novel" (Harper Perennial), by Chad Kultgen

If you are looking for profanity, "The Average American Marriage: A Novel" offers it in abundance. If you want a narrator's undying obsession with sex and frequent graphic depictions of it, you have found it. If it's an easy, entertaining, done-in-an-afternoon read you're in search of, here it is. If, however, the title has fooled you and you're in search of a happy ending, turn away.

The latest offering from Chad Kultgen, who has made a name for himself as the leading purveyor of "lad lit," gives perhaps the grimmest view of marriage since "Revolutionary Road" graced theaters.