Breakaway Books

Authored by Anne Tyler; Published in 2004

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️

There was something about The Amateur Marriage that was oddly compelling: it felt like watching a train wreck in real time. As the main couple, Pauline and Michael, had their first of many fights, I felt myself wincing and swearing I would never act this way.

Yet, I could not look away even as the author depicted a thoroughly ordinary life. Set from the 40s through the 90s, it covered history that I was well aware of, but shone light on what life looked like on a daily basis.

Perhaps what impressed me the most was the author’s ability to make both Pauline and Michael seem, in turn, completely sympathetic and completely villainous, depending on whose perspective she took in the story. This is what a relationship is; every story has two sides, and everyone is the hero in their own story. There is an amount of wisdom about marriage in here that rings true.

The secondary characters, their kids, seem flat at times, perhaps purposely so— a reflection of the way that there are limits to how parents can perceive their children. They are (mostly) frighteningly practical to the point of being almost boring in comparison to their parents. 

There is no big event in the plot, really, but somehow, that didn’t bother me. It is certainly not a novel to take you away from your troubles. Read this one if you’re looking for a realistic study of marriage.