AmosL
05-11-2008, 10:19 AM
Greer, Andrew Sean. “The Story of a Marriage”, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2008.
Knowing the Ones We Love
Amos Lassen
Andrew Greer has the ability to tell a fascinating story based on an interesting idea. “The Story of a Marriage” is full of revelations throughout the novel and I found myself going backwards looking for hints that I might have missed. But this was no problem for me because Greer’s prose and style are so beautiful that it is a pleasure to read it again and again.
The story is set in San Francisco in 1953 and Pearlie tells how she came to marry Holland Cook, the guy who had been her childhood sweetheart. A couple as teenagers, they drifted apart and then reunite some years later, get married and have a son. Buzz Drummer, Holland’s former boss and lover also reappears in their lives and this moves them into a new kind of relationship which causes them to make agonizing decisions.
San Francisco is the ideal setting for the novel as the story deals with both sexual and racial issues and the city at that time was in a climate of both fear and repression.
Pearlie is an unforgettable character who exudes personality, restraint and beauty. She is forced to exist when the country was experiencing class, racial and sexual strife and is made to find her place at a time when it was not easy to do so.
Greer’s book is an emotion filled look at a time in our history when he were dealing with major issues—war, racial tension, sexual identification, the meaning of sacrifice, motherhood. But above all else, the theme here is love and Greer looks at the mysteries of it and the effect it has on others. When Pearlie realizes that all of which she thought was certain is threatened, she realizes that she hardly knows the man she married. Pearlie, over the time period of six months, struggles with trying to understand the world in which she lives as well as attempting to come to terms with her husband. Holland. Her story is not only a study of love but a look at the effects of war on her and the world.
It is interesting that when I think of the decades of the 50’s, I characterize it as being a period of innocence and simplicity. I learn here that my thoughts are a bit incorrect and that the 50’s were a period of great tension. Greer, in poetic language, gives us love but blends it with race and war and he is powerful as he explores Pearlie and her affections. Greer writes of her hopes and her choices.
Looking at love, we learn through the three characters in the novel that there are tremendous gaps between what we know and who we love.
I loved the feeling of surprise in the novel. My expectations were changed if not destroyed as I read, ideas were thrown out and tension constantly built until the conclusion. As the stories are told by the three characters, we enter the worlds of their hopes and their dreams as well as their fears and sadnesses. Greer carefully plotted his novel and his writing is sublime but it is his observations on love that make this book the beautiful read that it is.
Knowing the Ones We Love
Amos Lassen
Andrew Greer has the ability to tell a fascinating story based on an interesting idea. “The Story of a Marriage” is full of revelations throughout the novel and I found myself going backwards looking for hints that I might have missed. But this was no problem for me because Greer’s prose and style are so beautiful that it is a pleasure to read it again and again.
The story is set in San Francisco in 1953 and Pearlie tells how she came to marry Holland Cook, the guy who had been her childhood sweetheart. A couple as teenagers, they drifted apart and then reunite some years later, get married and have a son. Buzz Drummer, Holland’s former boss and lover also reappears in their lives and this moves them into a new kind of relationship which causes them to make agonizing decisions.
San Francisco is the ideal setting for the novel as the story deals with both sexual and racial issues and the city at that time was in a climate of both fear and repression.
Pearlie is an unforgettable character who exudes personality, restraint and beauty. She is forced to exist when the country was experiencing class, racial and sexual strife and is made to find her place at a time when it was not easy to do so.
Greer’s book is an emotion filled look at a time in our history when he were dealing with major issues—war, racial tension, sexual identification, the meaning of sacrifice, motherhood. But above all else, the theme here is love and Greer looks at the mysteries of it and the effect it has on others. When Pearlie realizes that all of which she thought was certain is threatened, she realizes that she hardly knows the man she married. Pearlie, over the time period of six months, struggles with trying to understand the world in which she lives as well as attempting to come to terms with her husband. Holland. Her story is not only a study of love but a look at the effects of war on her and the world.
It is interesting that when I think of the decades of the 50’s, I characterize it as being a period of innocence and simplicity. I learn here that my thoughts are a bit incorrect and that the 50’s were a period of great tension. Greer, in poetic language, gives us love but blends it with race and war and he is powerful as he explores Pearlie and her affections. Greer writes of her hopes and her choices.
Looking at love, we learn through the three characters in the novel that there are tremendous gaps between what we know and who we love.
I loved the feeling of surprise in the novel. My expectations were changed if not destroyed as I read, ideas were thrown out and tension constantly built until the conclusion. As the stories are told by the three characters, we enter the worlds of their hopes and their dreams as well as their fears and sadnesses. Greer carefully plotted his novel and his writing is sublime but it is his observations on love that make this book the beautiful read that it is.