World Famous Comics: The Story of a Marriage: A Novel
The Story of a Marriage: A Novel
By: Andrew Sean Greer Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 208 Publication Date: April 29, 2008 Release Date: April 29, 2008
From the bestselling author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli, a love story full of secrets and astonishments set in 1950s San Francisco
“We think we know the ones we love.” So Pearlie Cook begins her indirect and devastating exploration of the mystery at the heart of every relationship, how we can ever truly know another person.
It is 1953 and Pearlie, a dutiful housewife, finds herself living in the Sunset district of San Francisco, caring not only for her husband’s fragile health but also for her son, who is afflicted with polio. Then, one Saturday morning, a stranger appears on her doorstep and everything changes. All the certainties by which Pearlie has lived are thrown into doubt. Does she know her husband at all? And what does the stranger want in return for his offer of $100,000? For six months in 1953, young Pearlie Cook struggles to understand the world around her, most especially her husband, Holland.
Pearlie’s story is a meditation not only on love but also on the effects of war—with one war just over and another one in Korea coming to a close. Set in a climate of fear and repression—political, sexual, and racial—The Story of a Marriage portrays three people trapped by the confines of their era, and the desperate measures they are prepared to take to escape it. Lyrical and surprising, The Story of a Marriage looks back at a period that we tend to misremember as one of innocence and simplicity.
Like Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier, Andrew Sean Greer’s novel is a narrative tour de force that confirms him as “one of the most talented writers around” (Michael Chabon).
heartbreaking, beautifully written, transporting. As one would expect, given Andrew Sean Greer's past work, this book is excellent. He does an amazing job of recreating a period of history that is all but forgotten, as well as an area of San Francisco that is still, to this day, overlooked. This book is bravely written in that it is free from contemporary trends like unfounded irony and wisecracks. The author writes about love and means it, and it works. And the characters! It's impossible to not identify with Pearlie's unrequited love for her husband and her sense of duty as a wife. What could be a slow sentimental book quickly develops into a page turner in the best way. I've already given this book to 2 friends and my mom.
"Improbable Possibilities" I am surprised to see so many novelists of distinction and readers as well declaring this novel a triumph. In my view, it's far from that, not even being very good, and this for a number of reasons. First of all, the surprising plot twists which occur far too often throughout the slim book violate the reasonable principle that experienced readers will prefer even impossible events if they've been made probable over merely possible events, if an author leaves such as just wildly improbable. Greer seems to have thought his readers resembled kids at an old Saturday matinee featuring serials rife with weekly cliff-hangers. Every 10 pages or so, I was tempted to bellow forth, "Yeah, right!"
The narrative of the book is a pastiche, consisting of borrowings from the film "Far From Heaven" as well as from two other fairly recent films having to do with the purchase of someone else's spouse. Greer, unlike Shakespeare, unfortunately does not improve upon his sources. From books, the author is heavily indebted to Stendhal's theories of crystalization in love and Proust's far more profound and moving treatments of time and erotic obsession. Perhaps most disappointing is Greer's inclination to present platitudes as fresh truths. Thus, the notion that no one can fully and finally understand anyone else, much less himself - Greer's philosophy here - is presented as tantamount to the discovery of the wheel. Unfortunately, this set of ideas, the basis by the way of the strikingly innovative dramaturgy in "Hamlet," emerges in this novel not as hard won truth but rather as easy cliche.
The three main characters, Pearlie, Buzz, and Holland, are all lacking in sufficient interiority to hold one's attention. As "vessels of consciousness," their vision is extraordinarily restricted. The central figure, Pearlie, I'd say, makes the rustic Emma Bovary by comparison appear a universal genius. The child Sonny, being sometimes bratty, and the dog Lyle, being frequently goofy, have between them more believable "life" than any of the three principals. I think the charater limitation here is equivalent to the one seen by Francis Bacon when he declared "It is a poore Center of a Man's Actions, Himselfe." For all their chatter about war, of not belonging, and of 50's life in America, the principals have no fully convincing interests outside themselves and their own small, little world.
Stylistically, the novel is a mixed bag. The sentences, as one might expect, are generally well-wrought, and they're the basis of my 2 stars. But even here, there are difficulties. Greer seems to strain after pseudo-poetic effect, and on occasion tumbles into the laughable. He writes, "the moon was rising quickly and had found a flock of clouds hidden in the sky and touched them all into vertebrated streaks of light. Everywhere the stars struggled to show themselves." If there exists in contemporary writing a better example of the long discredited "pathetic fallacy," I'm unaware of it.
Good Period Domestic Melodrama 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.
THE question... What is fair in love and war? The ANSWER... read this fascinating, thoughtful story of how some some people twist their lives and feelings to make sense of what does not always make sense. Andrew Sean Greer penetrates the fog of conflict and passion through the voice of "Pearlie Cook" the teller of this dreamy and haunting narrative.
Knowing the Ones We Love 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.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
