An American Marriage

 

"Love makes a place in your life, it makes a place for itself in your bed. Invisibly, it makes a place in your body, rerouting all your blood vessels, throbbing right alongside your heart. When it’s gone, nothing is whole again."

I'm not a fan of love stories and I did not quite know what exactly I was getting into when I picked up this book, but once I started reading it I didn't really have a choice. Have you ever had a friend (or even an acquaintance for that matter) who has a habit of bringing up their childhood friends, whom you've never ever heard of before, by their first name in conversations with you? And there you are left wondering whether this was some person you were supposed to know until finally your friend understands your predicament & unapologetically decides to give you some context!

This book is like that friend. Right from page one it starts talking to you...about everything under the sun as if you've known them for long. At first, you look around a bit...hoping that something would give away and you'd be able to make some sense of it all. But then it's not too late before you actually start finding it intriguing and decide to play along knowing that it'd start making sense on its own after all!

And it isn't like you're reading a story. It makes you feel like you're in a conversation with the different characters - three of them in essence - Roy, Celeste & Andre. In no time, they'd become your friends. You'd hear everyone's side of the story. You'd feel like hugging Roy at one point and the very next moment you'd find him utterly self-absorbed. You'd empathise with Celeste one minute and the next minute you'd find it hard to comprehend her. You'll feel warmth for Andre one moment and then you'd feel nothing for him the next moment. 

It's a story of a marriage that falls apart, mercilessly and inevitably, as a result of a tragedy that befalls the husband. His fault - he's black and hence already has all the cards dealt against him. He's seeing 12 years in the prison, while the wife tries to wrap her head around her new reality. They're both obviously suffering, but who's to say whose suffering is worse? Is it possible for love to assume a different form as time passes? Can a person truly move on and yet continue to hold on to the feeling they once called home? The emotions are raw, the feelings are excruciating.

Through much of the book, you get sucked deeper into these inner conflicts that consume our characters. Like most of the decisions we make in our lives, there's no right or wrong. All that is, is the now you're living in.

Human beings are a complex species and giving words to their feelings & emotions can be a mammoth task! I'd give kudos to the author, Tayari Jones, for nailing that. An American Marriage keeps things practical and its characters real. That's what I loved the most about this book.

I gave it 4 stars, only because I felt that the story did not do a lot of justice to Andre's character. It didn't give it enough time to make a connect with the readers. Failing this could make it easy for readers to develop a bias against his character. And once that happens, the story just becomes black & white instead of the various shades of grey that it so beautifully depicts. 

The book left me with a lot of afterthought & a bittersweet feeling that'd be hard to shake off. With that, it's time for me to move on to my next book. And for my next read I've picked up "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. If I judge the book by its cover, it looks a promising story of three powerful women. I hope it doesn't disappoint!

See you with a review soon. Happy reading!