Marriage: A Duet

by Anne Taylor Fleming

Two exquisitely written novellas, each connected by one infidelity. These deeply moving novellas offer a unique perspective on infidelity, bringing into sharp focus the complications and consequences created by spouses who -- despite their genuine bond of love -- are unfaithful to one another. In the first novella, A Married Woman , Caroline, a middle-aged woman, keeps a careful vigil over her husband William's death bed. While frightened by the idea of losing her soulmate and lifelong companion, Caroline confronts another startling she feels a kind of rebirth through his passing. The later years of her marriage were tainted -- he had fallen in love with a younger woman but renounced his passions for the sake of the family. In the second novella, A Married Man , David -- husband, father, and businessman -- finds his sense of well-being and achievement damaged by his wife Marcia's a one-night affair, which she regrets but does not conceal from him. When Marcia and David cannot reclaim the daily routine of a happy marriage, they seek help together from a popular television therapist.

Genres: Contemporary

Hardcover

First published January 8, 2003

Reviews

[Rebecca]

In “A Married Woman,” Caroline Betts’s husband, William, is in a coma after a stroke or heart attack. As she and her adult children visit him in the hospital and ponder the decision they will have to make, she remains haunted by the affair William had with one of their daughter’s friends 15 years ago. Although at the time it seemed to destroy their marriage, she stayed and they built a new relationship.

I fully expected the second novella in the book, “A Married Man,” to give William’s perspective (like in Carol Shields’s Happenstance), but instead it’s a separate story with different characters, though still set in California c. 2000. Here the dynamic is flipped: it’s the wife who had an affair and the husband who has to try to come to terms with it. David and Marcia Sanderson start marriage therapy at New Beginnings and, with the help of Prozac and Viagra, David hopes to get past his bitterness and give in to his wife’s romantic overtures. I’d recently read State of the Union by Nick Hornby and couldn’t help but think of that as a more structurally original take.

Although there’s no doubt Fleming is a careful observer of how marriages change over time and in response to shocks, overall I found the tone of these tales abrasive and the language slightly raunchy.

A favorite passage:

“It didn’t take that long for these other things—disappointment, habit—to feel strangely like love while not being, to fill up the space, so that you could go on and by and by even laugh together again at the naiveté of your younger love-struck selves.”

[Mary]

This darn book made me cry. If your relationship has ever endured infidelity...this book will pry open old wounds. I could identify with the love and angst of the characters and the feeling of hopelessness after betrayal. We want answers, and sometimes there are none.

[Beverly]

Certainly a thought provoking book about the ramifications of infidelity. In one story we find a wife sitting by the bedside of her dying husband. He had confessed years earlier to a short affair and she spends her time reliving it all and still trying to process how she feels about it. In the second story, a wife has a one night fling which only involves oral sex and the dreadful impact it has on her husband who believed that they had the perfect life and marriage. Overall, kind of depressing because in the heat of the moment so many things can happen that can cause long lasting and irreparable damage to a relationship. This would be a great book for a book discussion group.

[J.M. Evans]

I loved this book because it deals with the intensity, and irrationality of emotions when a person has been betrayed. It also speaks to the cost of being unable to forgive, as well as the cost of forgiving when, perhaps, we shouldn't. Well-written, simple, but beautiful prose.

[RJC]

Very wordy. The man's tale was not as good.

[Jean]

I came to this book via the author's husband's praise in his memoir. It's two novellas, one on a older woman at her dying husband's bedside; one on a younger woman and her husband after the younger woman mildly cheated on him. Both novellas read/felt autobiographical - though the first in a weird way in that the older woman, from whose view the story is written, has been worrying obsessively about her husband's involvement with a younger woman, and in real life the author was a younger woman for whom a husband left his wife. It's almost like the author is usurping the wronged wife's voice, while apologizing in a way in the story by killing the younger woman off in a plane crash (after rendering her as a highly intelligent and desirable paragon). The book does have some sharp dialog that rings true. I am tempted to get her earlier memoir "Motherhood Deferred, a Mother's Journey" because I think I'd like it better than these novellas.

[Jacq Jardin]

marital infidelity. shattered trust. pride. healing. recovery.

I loved everything about this book. From the elegant way it is written, to the gradual build up of events, to the realistic portrayal of the characters, to the endings that tug at the corner of the reader's heart (the book is composed of two novellas). Anne Fleming is one gifted writer.

"And if you were married the way she was, right to the nerve endings, you lived, she saw now, in particular peril. That was the joke. Mediocre marriages weren't in jeopardy - not the same way. They rolled along absorbing insults because the expectations were lower. Or they fell apart. But the good ones - they were the ones that got damaged. Long, long after they were re-engaged with eah other..."

[Penny]

This book begs for a quote from the movie The English Patient, ""Betrayals in war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace. New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire." This book of two novellas has that theme: betrayals. In the
first one, I ached with the main character as she waded through the minefields women can experience in marriage, in even seemingly perfect marriages. I mourned with her the lost opportunities and moments of the years. I prayed for the women I know who may be suffering in ways I do not know. In the second one, I found myself just grieving just as much for this husband whose marriage had slipped from seeming perfection. This author writes with insight and tenderness. Recommended.

[Lisa]

Two novellas about infidelity in "happy" marriages - one about a woman, the other about a man. Both dig deep into the core of how each of these characters fights to find a way up to the surface after being plunged into the deep, murky waters of a beloved spouse's betrayal. Detail, psychologically astute. A wonderful read.

[Sandi]

Two novellas. Both deal with spousal betrayal, one by the husband and the other by the wife. Very interesing comparing the methods the characters use to deal with the hurt. Characters are very believable. This evoked a ton of discussion in our book club.

[Sondra]

Wasn't at all what I expected...just randomly grabbed it off the shelf like I said I should try to do sometime. Ended up being a fast and interesting read. Probably an odd choice to take on a 5-year anniversary trip though!

[Ayelet Waldman]

This was on of my favorite books of this list. She's a stupendous writer. If infidelity scares you as much as it does me, you should read this. And if it doesn't, you should read it, too, to see why it should.

[Karen]

another one i'd read when it first came out and then really enjoyed rereading. infidelity and the reaction to it never gets old!

[Kata]

Does marriage capable to be a sacred, shiny unit these days? If you think so, don't read this book as it explores the opposite by introducing 2 marriages that were failed, due to infidelity.

[Michelle]

Read this in 2003 when I kept a paper reading journal with only two categories: I liked this more than I like most books (it stands out), and I didn't like this. This book was marked that I liked it more than most.

[Grofica Nera]

Interesting...