The Amateur Marriage: A Novel
by Anne Tyler
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Book Summary Information
Author: Anne TylerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-10-26
ISBN: 0345470613
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of The Amateur Marriage: A Novel
Book Review: A classic Tyler tale of family dysfunction in Baltimore
Summary: 3 Stars
Pauline and Michael's first meeting could have been straight out of a fairy-tale: on December 6, 1941--the day Pearl Harbor was attacked--Pauline has an accident on the street, and she and her friends walk into Michael's grocery store for help. After this chance meeting, both are smitten, and they soon rush into a hasty, wartime wedding. Unfortunately, the marriage that follows is anything but "happily ever after." Emotional, sentimental Pauline and stalwart, logical Michael simply appear to be mismatched, but by the time they realize this, it's too late to do anything about it. Each chapter of the book chronicles a particular period in Pauline and Michael's lives. Following their courtship, we fast-forward to the couple as young parents of one child and a second on the way. Several years later, the family has grown to three children and has moved the the suburbs. Next comes one of the most significant events in the family's life: the oldest daughter, Lindy, leaves home at only 17 years old. Lindy's disappearance has a major impact on all members of the family, but it fails to bring Pauline and Michael any closer to moving from being "amateurs" to "experts" at their marriage.
The subsequent chapters of the book create a significant departure, making the story less about a marriage and more about the individual characters. Michael, who had played a smaller role in the first half of the book, is featured more in the second half. While I suspect that the author intended him to be a sympathetic figure, I did not find him to be so. Futhermore, I felt like the final chapters of the book did little to enhance the reader's understanding of what was going on amongst this group of disparate characters known as the Anton family. The book ends where it began--December 6th, 50 years later--and I found this ending to be disappointing. Author Anne Tyler has a rather disjointed, rambling style, and while I've enjoyed many of her earlier books, this novel left me wondering "what was the point?" However, Tyler's prose is very readable as always, and the story did provide some truly insightful moments. If you are a fan of Tyler, you may like this book, but I did not enjoy it as much as her other works.
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