Customer Reviews

Story of a Marriage

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"We think we know the ones we love." Thus opens this novel which then goes on to explore all the ways in which the narrator doesn't know or understand those she loves. Her seemingly comfortable marriage is threatened when a former lover of her husband's appears on her doorstep, in an attempt to reclaim her husband. She struggles to understand her husband's desires, as well as her own. Along the way, she revisits her past with her husband, and the events that have brought them to where they find themselves. There's an interesting subtext about men who don't willingly respond when their country calls them to service. In all the current discussion of the "Greatest Generation", we seem to have forgotten that not everyone who was called to fight for their country were willing to do so.

In many ways, this was an interesting exploration of relationships, and the lengths people will go for them. But the story drags along for long stretches, and requires some focus to read, and it took me far too long to finish.

[This review is based on an uncorrected proof copy]

Greer sets this book in San Francisco in the 50s. I am drawn to books set in my favorite places. It increases my feeling of being there. I think of the book as a mystery, a psychological one that reveals the motivating events that shaped this family's lives. I found the book well written and engaging. Greer deals with the complexities of race and homosexuality in the fifties and the impacts these have on individual lives and families coupled with what war does to people.

Set in the smothering social and political confines of 1953,Pearlie-a black woman-has doubts about her husband, and is then visited by Buzz Drumer who claims he was her husbands lover from the war hospital and he wants him back and will pay Pearlie handsomely if she will let him go.
To say anymore would spoil an excellent read. 'The Story of a Marriage' explores themes of love, war loss and sacrifice with great precision and to my mind ranks Greer alongside contemporary greats such as William Styron and Richard Ford. Another few books of this quality and he will cement his place. This has all the ingredients of a classic, and I will definately be reading Greers other works.

I was ultimately disappointed by the author's method of storytelling. The reader never hears the perspective of the main character's husband. So it's difficult, if not impossible, to understand why Pearlie (the main character) does what she does. There is no conversation between Pearlie and her husband. She is drawn as very flat and therefore unbelievable. There are interesting issues raised - how men dodged the draft for the Korean War and what happened to those who did. But that is really not the story here. The story is about a gay man trying to claim Pearlie's husband for himself. I didn't buy this story at all. The way the son is drawn is also confusing. He's sort of an odd, flat character as well but then grows up to fight against Viet Nam. It just doesn't follow. I'd find something else to read.