April 21, 2009

The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer


“Holland and I had talked about our friends and our childhoods and movies and books and politics—we had agreed and disagreed and had our fights and merry moments over a beer—but I think it’s fair to say we had never spoken honestly in all ours lives.” This quote from A Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer prettily sums up the story’s central conflict. The narrator, Pearlie a young mother and wife to her high school sweetheart, Holland grapples with her marriage in 1950’s San Francisco. She says, “I loved you like a field on fire,” in reference to Holland, and yet her marriage and commitments are tested by the appearance of a dapper stranger.

It does the novel a disservice to reveal any more about the plot, as its secrets are revealed in well timed waves. In fact the book’s only draw back is its brevity as its simple prose endears readers page by page. It’s an unconventional love story written with graceful restraint and vibrant characters. The Story of a Marriage is as perfect a novel as any I've read.

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