Tales of the Walking Wounded

--Jen Robinson, from "Split: Stories From a Generation Raised on Divorce" (Contemporary Books)

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The moment parents divorce, the life of their child becomes a succession of splits: emotions ebb and flow from one parent to the other; home, in most cases, is no longer one house but two; and memories are slotted into "before" and "after" categories.

Much has been researched and written about the long-term impacts of divorce on children--the facts and interpretations always filtered through the eyes and ears of a social scientist, psychologist or academic. Some experts insist the psychological and emotional damage on children is irreversible; others maintain it is a traumatic event people can grow and recover from.

But little has been heard from the children themselves.

As a member of the generation of children who grew up amid the divorce revolution of the 1970s, Ava Chin has always wanted to hear from her peers. "When I was a kid, I heard all the dour statistics of what it was like," said Chin, 32, who edited the essays that make up "Split," a new anthology of intimate accounts by Gen-X writers from families of divorce.

"We were more likely to drop out of school, get pregnant when we're young and get married and then divorced. But none of these things fit my profile or that of my friends when we were in school," Chin said. "I had always wondered what it was like for the other kids. What was it like for them to watch their home life split in two?"

Chin, a former editor of Vibe and Spin magazines who recently moved to Los Angeles from New York, set out to find out by tapping writers in their 20s and 30s across the country. She asked them to write about how their parents' divorce affected them at the time and now, knowing full well it would prove to be a daunting assignment. She too had been trying to complete such an essay for 15 years; her father left her mother when she was pregnant with Chin, who did not meet him until she was 27.

"Even for professional writers, it was really difficult to write these essays and deal with past issues and write about them objectively," said Chin, a postgraduate literature and creative writing student at USC. "But they all identified as a kid of divorce and were enthusiastic about trying to write about it--until they actually sat down to write it. Mine came out in different permutations. At first, they were all too emotional, too overwrought. It got to the point I really doubted I was going to be able to do it, which is why I didn't pressure anybody else."