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In Crush, Calhoun explores the idea of polyamory through unraveling a heterosexual monogamous marriage. The unnamed wife narrates the novel, throughout which she learns to pay attention to what she cares about rather than going along with societal expectations for morally good wives and mothers. Paul, the husband, convinces her to shift the boundaries of their union because it seems “like a strategy for a lasting marriage and for a richer life than past generations of women were able to have.�� The couple searches for “a new and better kind of fidelity—a fidelity to each other and to [themselves.]�� In this strategic change of commitment, the wife finds herself in love with David.

The wife and David are Heloise and Abelard 2.0. They start as close friends on a holiday, so to speak, without transgressing into real-life territory. Their dance around the boundary by means of their epistolary romance doesn’t last because the wife and Paul continually redraw the liminal lines to adjust to their ever-transforming preferences and feelings. Throughout the book, the wife asks whether “expansion without contraction sustainable.�� Her and Paul’s therapist, who specializes in polyamorous relationships, responds, not how you’re doing it: “In an open marriage, a couple explores romantic or sexual relationships with other people as a way to enhance their own lives and their connection with each other.�� They have to negotiate boundaries and jealousy, and it’s not for everyone. But it can work when there is commitment and communication.�� Ultimately, it doesn’t work for them.

In general, I like the idea of characters figuring out what’s meaningful, questioning what’s good, and learning to vocalize their needs. However, I didn’t enjoy the book’s over-sexualization of female and male relationships. I want to learn more about the theory behind consensual polyamory in future pop-level reading. Crush might not add to my small sample of stories about non-monogamous marriage because the wife ends up leaving Paul (a tawdry man to begin with) for David, and it sounds like this new amorous relationship is monogamous.