An American Marriage

by Tayari Jones

But home isn’t where you land; home is where you launch. You can’t pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.

“Love is the enemy of sound judgment, and occasionally this is in service of the good.

Marriage is between two people. There is no studio audience.

when a woman shuts you out, picking the lock won’t let you back in.

“That’s your fate as a black man. Carried by six or judged by twelve.”