The Story of a Marriage: A Novel
by Andrew Sean Greer
List Price:
Our Price: $0.94
You Save: $21.06 (96%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Andrew Sean GreerEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-29
ISBN: 0374108668
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Book Reviews of The Story of a Marriage: A Novel
Book Review: "But you know the heart: every night it grows a thorn."
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Historical Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Historical Books
Pirate Latitudes: A Novelby Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-11-24; Roughcut; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novelby Louise Erdrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.83
Price in other shops:
The Last Witchfinder: A Novelby James Morrow
William Morrow; Published: 2006-03-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Zorroby Isabel Allende
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-05-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $3.15
Price in other shops:
The Hot Kid: A Novelby Elmore Leonard
William Morrow; Published: 2005-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops:
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)Mass Market Paperback; Book
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3)by Conn Iggulden
Harper Collins Canada; Published: 2008; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.70
Marchby Geraldine Brooks
Penguin Books; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Emperor (Emperor 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2003-06-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Girl With a Pearl Earringby Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins Audio; Published: 2002-06-17; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $86.82
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Sense of an Ending (Borzoi Books)by Julian Barnes
Knopf; Published: 2011-10-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.97
Price in other shops:
Let the Great World Spin: A Novelby Colum McCann
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2009-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.55
Price in other shops:
The Finkler Question (Man Booker Prize)by Howard Jacobson
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2010-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops:
The Paris Wife: A Novelby Paula McLain
Ballantine Books; Published: 2011-02-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops: