The Story of a Marriage: A Novel | Andrew Sean Greer | "But you know the heart: every night it...

The Story of a Marriage: A Novel | Andrew Sean Greer | An Artful Revelation

books:

The Story of a Mar...

	The Story of a Marriage: A Novel Andrew Sean Greer Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 35 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

"But you know the heart: every night it grows a thorn."

The 1950s are looked upon with some nostalgia, America's innocent days before the turbulence of the 60s. But for those who lived through them, the 1950s were defined by the end of a world war, the Korean conflict, nearing a close in 1953, mothers anguishing over broken children felled by polio, the execution of the Rosenburg's, and rigid social conventions, the country struggling, as ever, through the complications of post-war recovery. After stumbling across a childhood sweetheart with whom she shares an exceptional history, Pearlie is happy to accept when Holland Cook makes his endearing appeal, "I need you to marry me." Four years later, the couple resides in an area of San Francisco near the fog-shrouded Pacific Ocean, in a small bungalow, where Holland travels frequently for business and their young son is stricken by polio, restricted by the iron braces that support his legs. Whatever doubts she entertains fleeting, barely acknowledged, Pearlie is happy. Until a stranger comes to the door, a man from Holland's past, Charles "Buzz" Drumer.

When Holland returns from work, greeted by his wife and old friend, there is a subtle shift, a tremor in the foundation of Pearlie's well-tended marriage. She chooses to ignore the sense of dislocation that has entered the house with the stranger. There have been hints, Holland's spinster twin cousins, referred to as "the aunts", who warn Pearlie before the marriage that Holland has a weak heart, a disease for which there is no cure. Cautious and protective, Pearlie does everything in her power to avoid aggravating Holland's condition, a peaceful home, quiet, separate bedrooms because he has difficulty sleeping, even a barkless dog. Then, with Buzz, something changes, Pearlie's deliberate care somehow redundant with the advent of this man. A great sum of money is mentioned, $100,000, an unimaginable amount for a woman such as Pearlie, whose aspirations are simple and few. In 1953's rigid, conventional America an unassuming wife has no idea how to protect her family from an enemy she never could have imagined.

Greer's prose is so stunning, so lyrical in this exquisite novel, that it is impossible not to read very carefully, lingering over an image, a phrase, a shattering revelation. How relevant from the perspective of a new millennium, gender politics and racism the most potent brew of all, without a prayer in that era of hopeless ambitions and suppressed fears of "the enemy within", the country beginning a long and tumultuous affair with exposing others, those who might undermine American values by living in ways that lie outside the strict boundaries imposed by a rigid society. The heart of the novel is so subtle, so textured, that, above all, the reader is intimately aware of a marriage fractured by the intrusion of a stranger from the past. In a "war story of men who did not go to war", Pearlie engages in an interior skirmish that leaves her breathless, unable to articulate her own needs. Having settled always for the smallest portion of life's bounty, Pearlie is unprepared for the freedom of making a choice and the consequences of low expectations. Profoundly insightful, Greer's Pearlie is a remarkable feast for a hungry reader. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

for more information click here

An Artful Revelation

This beautifully written story is, in part, the tale of a complicated marriage. It is also a reflection on facades, those we create and those that are imposed upon us. To reveal too much of the story would be criminal as much of the beauty in reading this fine effort is in the author's revelation of his characters and his story. Mr. Greer engages in a kind of narrative scarf dance. Each incident, reflection, altercation tugs away another layer of the character's facade, bringing the story into clearer focus. (In time the reader also comes to realize that some of these facades may not be constructed by the author, but rather imposed by the reader.) The novel takes place primarily in the 1950's in the suburbs of San Francisco. The setting and time period are artfully drawn and provide an illuminating backdrop as the story is revealed.

Excellent.

for more information click here

"I have wrapped my dreams."

A marital conspiracy forms the core of this exquisite novel, proving that you can never really know the person that you love. Getting to the heart of a disaffected life in 1950's San Francisco, The Story of a Marriage steadily unfurls some of life's most veiled desires. Pearlie Ash packs her bags, never again setting foot in Kentucky and comes to California to work for the War effort. It is here in the foggy City by the Bay that brings her a sudden memory of home when she reconnects with her childhood sweetheart Holland Cook.

Reminded of their time back in Kentucky, "a soft threat of the past," it was Pearlie who'd read poetry to Holland and had taken piano lessons from his mother, Holland offers to her an escort for the movies. But Pearlie cannot help but fall in love with him all over again, the desire to embrace him and take care of this war-damaged man consuming her even as Holland's sharp-chinned headed aunts, "like Duchesses from Alice in Wonderland fussing with enormous hats," warn her about their nephew: " don't do it, don't marry him."

It isn't long before the couple is ensconced in a home, in The Sunset area of San Francisco, an area of the city that seems "to fall outside of everything." Soon there is their son Sonny and together with him they try to make the best of their old property set like a rough stone among thousands of new houses put up for returning soldiers and their families. Even above the sounds of the ocean, one can hear the early-morning roar of the lions at the nearby zoo.

All seems idyllic until one evening a man who looks like he's from the government appears at their doorstep, claiming to have known Holland in the War. A charmer from the outset, his name is Charlie "Buzz" Drummer and almost at once he begins to beguile Pearlie with stories about the younger Holland who he says was once his employee. At first Pearlie assumes that Buzz is one of her husband's old friends, an old army pal who had simply fallen away, but her suspicions are provoked with something familiar: Buzz dresses like Holland, with his tweed coat and a foldable hat, and his long sleek trousers.

Just as Buzz forces a present into her hand, a little turquoise box no bigger than a slice of toast, she sees the look on Holland's astonished face when he arrives home, a look burning into something like contempt, then a look of fear. Thrust into a trove of innuendo and suspicion, Pearlie begins to realize there is something uncomfortable about this situation even as she tries to prune away the doubts about Holland and this enigmatic, charming, and totally suave man.

Buzz is in the corset business, among many more lucrative concerns, the profession giving him the visible glow of a womanizer, a hint of seduction and a promise of hope, and Pearle loves how he seemed to understand women. But then comes the story of his past with Buzz, both of them sharing a mental hospital, and then finally the unusual proposition involving an offer for Pearlie to live on Buzz's money while she can perhaps take brand new tentative steps into a new world.

Torn between wanting to protect Holland and his story, Pearlie partakes in clandestine meetings with Buzz, similarly repelled and attracted, and also intrigued by the man's offer. She had always known Holland's allure, the way his physical beauty seemed to power this passion in others. Now however, with these starling new circumstances, Pearlie realizes that she does not really know her Holland, "with his fragile and transposed heart," and consequently, she does not know herself.

It is this sense of insecurity and confusion about her husband and her past that constantly confounds Pearlie. When she realizes that her marriage is probably going to fall apart, she's thrust into a series of desperate measures one of which is trying to free herself by shifting her fate onto another woman, suspiciously a love interest of Holland. Like moths in a killing jar, she's plagued with doubts and questions, while the tinge of wifely duty colors her actions; she still hopes to protect Holland from his past.

As the author leads us through Pearlie's confusion and pain, much of the action is told from her point of view. Although we learn much about Buzz, his needs and his uncompromising desires, Holland remains an enigma and a mystery, In the end, it is Buzz, who tells Pearle that her husband." the flirt, the beautiful object, and the lover, who pleases us all with his gracious smile," is at a point in his life where he doesn't quite know who his is or what he wants and is casting around for options.

Greer envelopes his tale with the great events of 1953: the election of Eisenhower, the worries about the Korean War, race issues, the Rosenberg's, the threat of polio, the fears that communists are hidden everywhere, and that Russian Bombs are being prepared to for launch. In this world nothing has changed since the 1940's, all of the characters still suffering the after-effects of World War 2. Eventually it is war and love and marriage that meld together in a story about silence and lies where two veiled people lead each other hand on hand on a journey towards truth and hopefully to a new and honest kind of commitment. Mike Leonard May 08.

for more information click here

good balance

The STORY OF A MARRIAGE was a well balanced, well-written book. The plot was realistic, the characters were "flushed out" and the San Francisco - 1950's setting was memorable . Having current events of the day and references to pop culture , a lollypop on a curved soft handle, were superb details . Yes, plot, characters and settings merged beautifully to the well balanced book.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7

products you might be interested in