Chad Thomas Johnston’s Nightmarriage is a whimsical memoir that explores the terrors of marriage and the perils of parenthood. Adapted from Johnston’s blog series of the same name, Nightmarriage proves that, when two people marry, their flaws tie the knot, too. In essays such as “My Wife, the Black Hole,” “Hearts and Jumper Cables,” “Knives and Wives,” “Honeymoonwalking (to Jail),” and “Blessed Are the Tentmakers,” Johnston weaves stories on his literary loom that are equal parts luminous and lunatic.

Writing as only a minister’s son with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can, Johnston has crafted an observational ode to both the blunders and wonders of wedlock, and his writing is punctuated accordingly with absurd alliteration, appalling puns, and madcap metaphors. Nightmarriage is a must-read for fans of David Sedaris, Robert Fulghum, and Anne Lamott.

PRAISE FOR "NIGHTMARRIAGE"

***** “Chad Thomas Johnston is a veritable wit storm of storytelling, self-effacing humor, pop-cultural literacy, and spiritual wisdom, all whipped up into a funnel cloud of brilliance that leaves my world spun happily upside-down.”—Tania Runyan, Pushcart-nominated author of poetry collections "What Will Soon Take Place," "Second Sky," "A Thousand Vessels," "Simple Weight," and "Delicious Air," as well as "How to Read a Poem" and "How to Write a Poem"

***** (out of 5) “No one writing today can sling language around like Chad Thomas Johnston. Like the knives on the book's cover, his words slice through common places, coming out clean and sharp. And always pointed: the brilliant wordplay serves the purpose of dazzling insight.”—Peggy Rosenthal, author of "Knit One, Purl a Prayer: A Spirituality of Knitting" and co-author of "Reclaiming Beauty for the Good of the World: Muslim & Christian Creativity as Moral Power"

“The manner in which Johnston relates (his story) is winning: with a mischievous heart, as well as with a high regard for how the world-altering—such as the pending arrival of a child—sometimes can be discerned in the small, domestic detail.”—Brian Burnes, The Kansas City Star

“Johnston revels in wordplay throughout the book, using alliteration, assonance, and a pinch of puns to leaven the often serious issues of marriage and parenthood with his charming lunacy. He skewers his wife and he skewers himself again and again, and the repeated banana-peel-slips become a kind of healing mantra.”—Tyler McCabe, IMAGE Update, biweekly newsletter of IMAGE Journal

"'Nightmarriage,' 'Abra-Chad-Abra,' 'Honeymoonwalking' . . . If I had a dime for every winning pun on the trials and triumphs of early marriage and parenthood that Chad Thomas Johnston has to offer in his debut, I still might only come out with a dollar (now that I consider the actual math). But what a dollar it would be—rarer than a silver one, and in its own right a golden one. With it, I can go a long way toward paying off the renovations of the heart, ‘a home under construction,’ as Johnston describes it with his other recurring literary device—or rather, the lack of one: honest-to-goodness thanks for the persistence of grace."—Bradford Winters, writer for HBO's "Oz," Starz's "Boss," and FX’s "The Americans"