Us is a Working-style collection of long interviews with Americans, edited into monologues about their love affairs. The interviews—arranged by how long the couples have been together, from one month to 60 years or more—cover a lot of ground. Some of the couples are wealthy. Many are poor. Some are immigrants. Some are polyamorous. (Condescendingly, a handful of interviews with gay lovers are segregated into the back of the book.)

Like any good book of interviews, the thrills come when you get to peek into people's lives. The evangelical Christian courtships, especially, seem alien (in a few engagement stories, the couples seem to be more in love with Jesus than they are with each other), but the courtship between some of the older couples can seem strange, too (one man got engaged to his wife on their first date, after they attended a play).

The problem with Us is that after a while, the stories begin to run together. All of them end the same way: Boy gets girl (and I mean that literally, discounting the aforementioned Homosexual Ghetto). The repetition is not very becoming. But as a romantic gift for someone, and as a book to be dipped into occasionally for inspiration, it's a pleasant enough diversion.