Review: The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I could not put this down. Mr. Eugenides does not disappoint.

To me, this is simply a book about modern relationships struggling under the standard burdens (Does she love me? Is he using me?) but perhaps made more puzzling by the fact that the men and women of the late 70’s and early 80’s were still fitting themselves into all of the components of women’s liberation and equal footing.

The best way to describe the lives and stories in The Marriage Plot is this: It is like a big, big salad with two basic ingredients – searching for love and searching for true faith – and it is arranged on a bed of mental illness, sprinkled with class struggles and served with a small side of painful self-discovery (aka growing up).

Most of the story takes place among the intelligentsia of Ivy League campuses and around the gentility of old money. Most of the characters (except Leonard) are the kinds of people who have the luxury of choices. Should I stay in school or get an apartment in NY? Should I travel for a year or two, or take that internship? This slice of the uppercrust life might not appeal to some readers – it might not be relatable enough to “let in”. For example, when one especially self-important, insufferable student, aptly named Thurston, was asked to introduce himself, he replied: Um…I’m finding it hard to introduce myself, actually, because the whole idea of social introductions is so problematized.” Now, I definitely would have smacked that kid if I had been his professor.

My favorite surprise in reading this was that from it I was able to put together a small list of books I want to consume – books which the author so artfully interwove with the events in and out of the classrooms on campus.

The book thundered with the old bard’s words, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

Two thumbs up!


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