An American Marriage in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 10, 2018 Ginger rated it it was amazing

Shelves: botm, fiction-literature, cultural-studies, southern

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am still mulling over, thinking about these characters, pressing this into the hands of every friend who might read it because I want to talk about it!! Clearly, I love it. I gave it five stars and bought a second copy (so I'd have a pristine first edition, in addition to my marked up BOTM copy). But since it's easier sometimes to talk about the story in ways I didn't like than the ways I did (which are numerous, and probably already well outlined -- strong characters, an intriguing premise, s I am still mulling over, thinking about these characters, pressing this into the hands of every friend who might read it because I want to talk about it!! Clearly, I love it. I gave it five stars and bought a second copy (so I'd have a pristine first edition, in addition to my marked up BOTM copy). But since it's easier sometimes to talk about the story in ways I didn't like than the ways I did (which are numerous, and probably already well outlined -- strong characters, an intriguing premise, sharp writing by Jones), I offer a few thoughts about what didn't work for me.

Listening to a podcast with Tayari Jones, I realized one of the very few problems I had with this book -- Andre. I'm a loyalist, and I will always favor marriage over other relationships, but I'm willing to entertain the story and use my moral imagination to think about what a tricky situation Celestial, especially as such an independent woman in a new marriage, was in. But I don't think we were given enough background into Celestial and Andre's relationship. I can perhaps imagine the depth of a childhood friendship, but unless you've experienced that yourself, the reader wasn't given a compelling reason in the text to understand the bond between Andre and Celestial being stronger than the bond between Roy and Celestial. In fact, all the evidence we had (the letters, their prior time together, history of first date, etc.) pointed to the contrary. Not to mention Celestial seeming to be a woman of character who would not have taken a marriage vow so lightly. And especially to wrong a man who had been so badly wronged so by society besides. I wish Jones would have stacked the case for Andre much higher to overcome all these compelling reasons for the bond with Roy. (I actually found myself wondering if Celestial were an unreliable narrator. Perhaps she knew something about that night (or didn't, as in was asleep and unsure) that she wouldn't say.)

And I 100% believe this book would have been so much stronger without the epilogue. I think this about most books with epilogues, but this one seemed out of step with the tangled force of the novel with its tidy conclusion. ...more

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Jul 17, 2019 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: author-woman, 4-star, genre-fiction, theme-het, a-reviewed, usa, z-read-2019, genre-litfic, author-ofcolour, theme-usa-black

The first thing I noticed as I started reading was the mesmerising muscular prose style, like the waves in the middle of the Atlantic, big powerful writing which was a joy to me. I immediately became immersed in the life of the characters and in the city of Atlanta, as much a character as the people. I visited Atlanta briefly two years ago; I wish I had known about this author then; it would have given me a key to the city which baffled me in its American-ness.

I also learned new words and expres ...more

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