Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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February {2017} Discussion -- THE MARRIAGE PLOT by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Charity
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Feb 15, 2017 12:28PM
Time to discuss.
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George wrote: "The group's main page shows the upcoming book for March to be Cakes and Ale. The poll results show Cranford beating out "Cakes" (by 1 vote). Will Cranford actually be the book of the month?"We are reading both for March, because they were so close. :)
I hope that's true, because I just bought both..(new to the group)
Cranford was free.
Cakes and Ale was not, but it sounded kind of interesting.
Well, I read the book this week and was determined to give it a one star review since about the first quarter, and after I put it down I gave it a 5 star review...how did that happen? Most of my reservation with this book was the description of it as "whether a classic Jane Austen/Bronte style romance could be translated for the modern era", contrasted with the actual characterization of the protagonists. Long story short: I hated Leonard and Mitchell most of the time in the book, and I lost a lot of sympathy for Madeleine the more she voluntarily got involved with both of them. That and early scenes of the Semiotics class had me exhausted with its pretentiousness and having known people that spoke just like Madeleine's classmates.
But, more than that, reading this book was pretty personally upsetting for me. I previously dated a guy with poorly managed bipolar disorder who was into philosophy and metal and was almost exactly like Leonard. It was exactly as miserable as Maddie's experiences in this book. The same guy also had an inappropriate sense of entitlement to me and wouldn't stop contacting me after we broke up- like Mitchell in the book. Before I finished it, the way the book was framed as if Maddie was going to have an "overcoming our conflicts" conventional romance with one of these guys sickened me. As did her constant efforts to stay with Leonard as a "fixer". It was exhausting. I remember yelling to my coworkers about the scene where she agrees to be Leonard's girlfriend again after she has already broken up with him and he is in the hospital and clearly not well enough to be in a healthy relationship. Leonard's friend Henry was right, "People don't save other people. People have to save themselves". I remember raving about how I would have left then and the book would have been a quarter of the length.
But, I kept reading hoping that the point of this book would be that Maddie would come to her senses, dump these dudes, and focus on her scholarly work. I was hoping it was a set-up: that literature's (and movies like "The Notebook") -and therefore society's- conventions about passionate love ending in "happily ever after" marriage being the be all end all and overcoming everything- even the conflicts people cause to each other- as potentially harmful and unfounded. And you know what... it was. I mean, it took her waaaaaay too long (I stayed with my "Leonard" for less than a year and that was still too much) to catch the red flags, but it got there. And I think subverting these tropes is an important thing to add to the literary cannon.
Ultimately, the fact it affected me so deeply is part of why I think it is such a great book as well. It's a masterful description of being in a relationship where you are really only barely tolerating the other person, walking on eggshells around someone else's mania or depression, and essentially being emotionally manipulated both by an unwell partner and a societal expectation that good girlfriends should martyr themselves for them.
On another note, while the 3 main characters really tried me up until the end, I loved most of the secondary characters. Thurston annoyed me at first, but warmed up to him by the party scene when he was outside the classroom. I also liked the scenes with Henry, Dr. McGregor, Alwyn, Claire, and Larry as well.
Amanda - I'm creepily following your reviews now because I loved your review of this book. It encompasses everything I also felt about it! This was my first Eugenides book and I'm really excited to read more from him.
I didn't really enjoy The Marriage Plot so much. I read Middlesex awhile ago, and really liked it. I think it was the WASP-y characters.I may have taken Leonard's character the wrong way. Just seemed like he descended into his mental illness, and Madeline happily escapes on with her life. Rather than just having a bad relationship, Leonard's mental health adds another layer of bad.
I would have preferred the ending if Madeline went off completely on her own, rather than reconnecting with Mitchell.
I really enjoyed this one, although maybe not as much as Middlesex. I love the way Eugenides puts great detail in intertwining historical events/themes into his story. This is a novel set around university students in the 80s so he incorporates discussions around feminism, semiotics, mental illness, religion.
Darcy wrote: "Amanda - I'm creepily following your reviews now because I loved your review of this book. It encompasses everything I also felt about it! This was my first Eugenides book and I'm really excited ..."
Thanks Darcy! I try to review every book of the month, but other than that there is not a lot to creep lol other than rating the list books as I read them.
I'm really looking forward to reading more Eugenides too: I have the Virgin Suicides ebook downloaded for my May vacation, but might cave early and read it, and I've heard great things about Middlesex as well.
I just finished the book this morning, and I definitely have to agree, the first quarter of the book was so slow going for me. Madeline was easily the most annoying character, who I ended up sympathizing with in the end (until the end, end). Her complex of trying to save Leonard, when no one could save him from himself, really irritated me. However, at the same time, I also sympathized. My fiancé suffers from epilepsy and it took getting us into a horrific car crash where we both miraculously did not wind up seriously injured, that he finally started taking care of himself, going to the doctor, taking his medication etc even though he had suffered for years prior to us meeting. I found myself being more of a mom for the first year but you aren't going to leave someone because of a medical condition, though a mental condition seems to be entirely more stressful, but I found myself feeling bad for her, even if the saving complex annoyed me.I found myself hating Leonard for the entirety of the book until the conversation between himself and Mitchell was revealed, and my heart ached for Leonard. To suffer with that disease, I can't fathom.
Mitchell was the worst, and I found no redeeming qualities for him in the end, at some point, let the girl go.
As for the Jane Austen-esque qualities in the modern era, meh, is all I can say.
But the realness of the relationship between Madeline and Leonard is what makes the book as great as it is, even if you wish Mitchell would move on with his life or Madeline would realize she couldn't save Leonard and she needed to move on with hers.
This was a slow read. It took me a fair while to get any desire to continue with the story but it came when we finally shifted perspective to Leonard and I saw the growth of the disease in him. That was very interesting - far more so than college white middle class problems which I had enough of growing up and I didn't find them interesting even back then which is the only time it's permissible to be so self unaware and obsessed. Madeline was just typical and rather boring, Mitchell I thought an arrogant toerag who needed to pull his head out of his bottom for five minutes and get over himself already! Leonard was also a twat for the first half and then, yay, he bought some interest into the dialogue. Not enough for me to really rate the book though. It just managed 3 stars. Not terrible, decent writing, nothing I'd really recommend others to read unless I knew them well enough to know that this was their particular reading taste.
The ending I found rather non existent. There was no closure which might be acceptable in real life but in novels I was looking for a neater ending than 'nothing is resolved, the end'.
