Essay: THE PLEASURES & PAIN OF THE SINGLE LIFE

THERE is a new, privileged, spotlighted, envied group in the U.S. It is composed of "the singles"—the young unmarried whose label connotes, as in tennis, an endeavor more vigorous, more skilled and more fun than mere doubles. Proportionately, there are fewer singles in the population than there were 20 years ago, because young Americans are tending to marry at an earlier age. But they are the focus of a major part of advertising and salesmanship, the direct target of new approaches in housing and entertainment, the considerable despair of some established institutions, and...