I heard about his own troubles, his lousy marriage and the son who played hooky from school and the daughter who smoked grass.

Pietro is the product of a lousy, loveless marriage.

"This was a lousy marriage," Mr. Lewis said.

More status than warmth for a middle-class housewife, it was the last perk she squeezed out of a lousy marriage before ending it.

Enough whining about my one and only lousy marriage.

She portrays Carol, a volunteer with a young son and a lousy marriage.

There are two lousy marriages: the first to a nitwit debutante who does nothing but play tennis; the second to a vapid secretary who later becomes a model.

I had a lousy marriage, no kids, and I didn't especially care if I had a car.

Their friends, bedraggled, marginal yuppies of the 90's rather than the slick, flush ones of the boom decade, have lousy marriages and unrewarding careers.