Ginny Frost
An American Marriage by Tayari
Jones fulfilled the category “Book
that Has Won the Woman’s Prize for Fiction” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading
Challenge. It won in 2019.
This book illustrates the
reason I do not read literature. It was good but didn’t seem deserving of such
an honor. Let me give you some background.
The novel follows a newly
married couple (about eighteen months) who are thrown into terrible
circumstances beyond their control. Roy is falsely accused and convicted of a
crime and sent to jail. Celestial, his wife, is tasked with helping with her
husband’s defense and
keeping the marriage together. They face a long and bumpy road.
I won’t give away spoilers, but honestly, I didn’t care for
either of these characters. Roy, though in terrible circumstances, seems to
take out all his problems on his wife. He accuses her of things she didn’t do
and is crushed as the marriage falls apart. Celestial, on the other hand, does
not stand by her man. She tries to keep living her own life, find new love, and
pursue her dreams. She’s a limp fish. These two were doomed from the start.
I don’t love best sellers and these literature-type books. The
genre seems to sacrifice good story for drama. They focus on the wrong part of
the tale, giving the audience a false sense of the importance of the narrative.
In An American
Marriage, we never get deep into the characters’ conflicts and feelings. We
stroll along through the novel with half-confessions and hints of a deeper
situation. I never connected with the characters.
Roy was in prison. There’s a story. Focus on his
trials and survival. Make me feel for Roy. Don’t just throw in later that he
was stabbed. I want to see that event, feel his pain and fear. Not hear it as
an afterthought.
I don’t understand why this won a prize for women’s fiction. It’s
not Celestial’s story. We have little connection with her. She acts like no woman
I know. She’s cold, distant, seemingly unfeeling unless she’s being denied what
she wants. Why are we celebrating that woman? She cheats on her husband, does
not grant her husband a divorce, and she just lays there when Roy breaks into
her house and tries to have sex with her. I can’t sympathize with this woman.
I’m not saying this is a terrible story. There are many good
things about it. I was more interested in the healing at the end. When things
came to a head, there was this “Well, it’s over. Here’s the epilogue.” I would
have loved to hear their struggle, growth, and change from the climax to the
epilogue. Anyway, it’s well-written and compelling but so not for me.
I give An American
Marriage by Tayari Jones Four (or fewer) Historical Hickory Trees.