Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides, 406 pages

Madeleine Hanna is a college student in the 1980s.  She has a friend named Mitchell Grammaticus, who would love to be more than friends. And she has a boyfriend named Leonard, who alternates between bouts of mania and depression.  The title alludes to 'the marriage plot'- or the fact that all of those books by authors like Jane Austen seemed to revolve around finding a husband and ending with marriage.

But for Madeleine, life is not a Jane Austen novel.  Marriage is a struggle- especially when the one she loves pushes her away.  For all characters, it's a story of self-discovery and coming to terms with beginnings and endings that aren't always happy.

You could say that it's a love story and that they come in all different styles, but I would hesitate before recommending this to your typical reader of romance.  The ending is rather bitter.

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