Ever since her divorce three years ago, Ms. Thomas said, she has been antisocial, \u201cnervous about what people would say.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
After all, she had gone from Park Slope matron, complete with involved husband (\u201cWe had cracked the code of Gen X peer parenthood\u201d\u009d) and gut-renovated brownstone, to \u201ca Red Hook divorc\u00c3\u00a9e,\u201d\u009d she said, remarried with a new baby and two children-of-divorce barely out of preschool. \u201cAll of a sudden, this community I\u2019d lived in for 13 years became this spare and mean savannah,\u201d\u009d she said.<\/p>\n
It was as if, she said, everyone she knew felt bad for her but no one wanted to be near her, either. Even though adultery was not part of the equation, Ms. Thomas said, \u201cI feel like I have a giant letter A on my front and back.\u201d\u009d
That a woman who has been divorced should feel such awkwardness and isolation seems more part of a Todd Haynes set piece than a scene from \u201cfamilies come in all shapes and sizes\u201d\u009d New York, circa 2011. But divorce statistics, which have followed a steady downward slope since their 1980 peak, reveal another interesting trend: According to a 2010 study by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, only 11 percent of college-educated Americans divorce within the first 10 years today, compared with almost 37 percent for the rest of the population.<\/p>\n