The Story of a Marriage: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Andrew Sean Greer (Author) "We think we know the ones we love..." (more)
Key Phrases: seltzer boy, transposed heart, William Platt, Holland Cook, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. As he demonstrated in the imaginative The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Greer can spin a touching narrative based on an intriguing premise. Even a diligent reader will be surprised by the revelations twisting through this novel and will probably turn back to the beginning pages to find the oblique hints hidden in Greer's crystalline prose. In San Francisco in 1953, narrator Pearlie relates the circumstances of her marriage to Holland Cook, her childhood sweetheart. Pearlie's sacrifices for Holland begin when they are teenagers and continue when the two reunite a few years later, marry and have an adored son. The reappearance in Holland's life of his former boss and lover, Buzz Drumer, propels them into a triangular relationship of agonizing decisions. Greer expertly uses his setting as historical and cultural counterpoint to a story that hinges on racial and sexual issues and a climate of fear and repression. Though some readers may find it overly sentimental, this is a sensitive exploration of the secrets hidden even in intimate relationships, a poignant account of people helpless in the throes of passion and an affirmation of the strength of the human spirit.
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From Booklist
San Francisco in the 1950s may have seemed like a simpler time, but for African American wife and mother Pearlie Cook, it is anything but. Settled in the city’s Sunset District with her African American husband, Holland, she is wholly unprepared for the news imparted by a stranger who appears one Saturday morning at her door. He is Charles “Buzz” Drumer, a handsome white man who shared a room with Holland in a military hospital during World War II. (Holland had seen battle, Buzz had not. He was a conscientious objector, or, Pearlie wonders, was he just a coward?) Buzz’s astonishing admission (nope—not telling) and the request that follows rattle Pearlie’s peaceful world. She must make a heartbreaking decision, not only for herself, but for her polio-stricken son. Greer (The Confessions of Max Tivoli, 2004) sets this emotionally wrenching tale in a U.S. rife with strife—recovering from one war, mired in yet another, and grappling daily with the prickly issue of race. A haunting, thought-provoking novel about the liabilities of love. --Allison Block

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1ST edition (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374108668
• ISBN-13: 978-0374108663
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,537 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Period Domestic Melodrama, May 14, 2008

By	A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It's relatively rare that I pick up a piece of non-genre contemporary American literature, my tastes just don't generally range that way. However, in this case, the cover caught my eye, and the jacket copy was promising enough to get me started. And once I dipped into the book, Greer's prose was more than enough to keep me reading all the way through. Even though the story is rather sparsely plotted, it brims with tension and intimacy until the very end, and I highly recommend it to readers who favor domestic dramas.

The story takes place in San Francisco, circa 1953, but not in the part of town books and films are usually set in. Rather, it mostly takes place in the Sunset, a neighborhood in the Western part of the city which rolls down from the hills to the Pacific (and one I once lived in, just off the same street as the protagonists). Narrated by Pearlie, the story tells of her childhood crush Holland, and her later marriage to him following WWII. It's clear from the start (and various oblique hints throughout) that there are some deep secrets in this story, both in terms of Holland, and in terms of the story itself. The first section ends with an attempt on the author's part to surprise the reader, although I suspect most (like myself) will have seen through the pretense quite early on.

The next section delves into Pearlie's attempt to understand Holland, who suffered some kind of unspecified injury during the war, leaving him with a "weak" heart. Her attempt to understand her husband is both aided and confused by the reappearance of his former boss, and this man's easy insertion into their life as their only friend. This builds up to a narrative revelation which pretty much every reader will have guessed long before Pearlie is let in on the secret. The final third of the book revolves around the choices that lie before Pearlie now that she has learned this particular secret, and readers will be silently willing her to make one choice or another as she agonizes over the best course of action.

Although it is tackling large themes, such as the nature of love, and what it means to be married, the novel is ultimately a period domestic melodrama, and may prove to be somewhat too cloying for some readers. However I tend to be pretty sensitive to that kind of stuff, and Greer's sharp and simple prose largely avoids any gooey sentiment. Pearlie and Holland's story is greatly helped by the keen attention to period, as the effects of the war linger on, and America is just moving into a period of prosperity and social change. Some of Greer's revelations aren't the shocks he perhaps intends them to be, but the story remains compelling nonetheless. It's a nice book for book clubs, as the thematic issues (love, marriage, race, class, etc.) are ripe for discussion.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "We think we know the ones we love, and though we should not be surprised to find that we don't, it is heartbreaking nonetheless, November 2, 2008

By	Julee Rudolf "book snob" (Oak Harbor, WA USA) - See all my reviews

The Story of a Marriage is a well-plotted novel about a relationship triangle, that of a woman, her husband, and his friend. The woman, Pearlie Ash, meets a childhood sweetheart named Holland Cook one day on a beach after WWII. In spite of discouragement from his aunts (who are actually his cousins), she chooses to marry him. Their son, Sonny, contracts polio at age three. Four years into their marriage, Buzz Drumer, a man who knew Holland during the war, shows up. Over time, he reveals details of his secretive past and his relationship with her husband. Thirty years later, two of the three reunite. Although there seemed to be a statistically high number of conscientious objectors (of which I am not a fan) in a story with so few characters and pages, that fact is overshadowed by the originality of the story. Author Andrew Sean Greer does a fabulous job at plotting, and especially in at his perfectly timed revelations.

Also good: The Three Junes by Julia Glass, The Hours by Michael Cunningham and Close Range by Annie Proulx.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST Read, April 21, 2009

By	Jason Miller's Wife "Avid Reader, Shopper" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Story of a Marriage: A Novel (Paperback)

"Holland and I had talked about our friends and our childhoods and movies and books and politics--we had agreed and disagreed and had our fights and merry moments over a beer--but I think it's fair to say we had never spoken honestly in all ours lives." This quote from A Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer prettily sums up the story's central conflict. The narrator, Pearlie a young mother and wife to her high school sweetheart, Holland grapples with her marriage in 1950's San Francisco. She says, "I loved you like a field on fire," in reference to Holland, and yet her marriage and commitments are tested by the appearance of a dapper stranger.

It does the novel a disservice to reveal any more about the plot, as its secrets are revealed in well timed waves. In fact the book's only draw back is its brevity as its simple prose endears readers page by page. It's an unconventional love story written with graceful restraint and vibrant characters. The Story of a Marriage is as perfect a novel as any I've read.