This American Ex-Wife by Lyz Lenz is both a memoir of the author’s own divorce and a social and political history of divorce itself and its particular place in American society at the moment. As Lenz charts her own personal journey from a strict evangelical household through her difficult marriage to the hard-won liberation she felt through getting her divorce. In the midst, she writes a fiery manifesto about the way traditional gender roles are still baked into marriage and the toll that takes on women financially, emotionally, and professionally.