From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

An American Marriage

Tayari Jones

Start date: July 15, 2019

Finish date: August 1, 2019

Discussion: Reading List

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
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What Members Thought

Apr 07, 2018 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: booktopians, 2018, paperback, signed, audio, fiction, own, arc, z18

An engrossing look at a black couple who endure a 5-year separation very early in their marriage. Roy is wrongly accused and found guilty of raping a woman. The book is told through alternating voices of the wife, Celestial (Georgia) and the husband, Roy.
Most memorable quote, Roy asks Celeste if she would have expected him to wait 5 years for her. Her reply, "That would have never happened to me." ...more

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Dec 03, 2017 Dree rated it really liked it

Shelves: african-am-can-diaspora-lit, the-south, women-s-prize-long-short, 2017-reads, tournament-of-books, arc

Black men in America--whether they are college-educated, middle-class, and fully employed or not--are but one arrest, false accusation, and jury trial away from being incarcerated.

But what happens to those they leave behind? In this novel Jones looks at Roy Jr and Celestial, relative newlyweds, middle/upper-middle class Atlantans. Until he is accused and arrested and tried in rural Louisiana, on a trip to visit his parents. He is innocent, but it doesn't really matter. The jury believes the accu ...more

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Jan 22, 2019 Leslie rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I rather enjoyed this book - strong writing, good plot (although slow in some places), and I enjoyed “Roy.” I liked how the author developed the character and how he interacted with his Dad (small example of salmon croquettes - Lol! Nice touch) and later his “biological.”

And another food example later was simple again but I thought impactful (because I share it with my own father who has passed away) the Christmas apple.

Maybe it was just me but I could never quite get a visual on the dolls. I ...more

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Dec 08, 2019 Cdrueallen rated it liked it

This novel set mainly in the milieu of the black bourgeoisie in Atlanta contains wonderful portraits of men in the full glory of their loving/controlling/nurturing/violent ambivalence. Roy, the main male character, is especially compelling as climbs the class ladder but comes tumbling back down to where he started through no fault of his own. Unfortunately the female characters are annoyingly passive, bland, and conventional. Not what I was expecting from a female author.

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