The Marriage Plot. Wow. As I was reading this book, I felt like it was 1992 and I was sitting in Chandler Hall in an English class too afraid to speak (must've been one with Dr. Kennedy), too afraid that what I was thinking was wrong. That is a scary feeling, even 20 years later, yet what a powerful book this must be to evoke such a memory. It actually brought back a lot of good memories, too. As a result of this, and because the plot of the book was AWESOME, this book, I predict, will end up on my favorites list for the year.
The Marriage Plot has three central characters: Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell. Madeleine is majoring in English and is in love with Victorian Literature. Leonard is the science guy and Mitchell is a religious studies major. Despite different backgrounds and interests, the three characters cross paths and their lives begin to intersect. If this idea sounds familiar to any of you readers out there, it should. It is the idea of The Marriage Plot, around which many literary works are based, particularly Victorian literature, and is the subject of Madeleine's senior thesis. Sadly, Madeleine seems not to ever realize that her life mirrors what she has read her entire life, but one of her friends certainly does and he will reveal this irony at a critical moment of the book.
Until then, we get an amazing story, told through mostly flashbacks, but carefully crafted ones, of these three characters, plus a handful of secondary characters like Madeleine's parents and sister. By the time you turn the last page, these characters seem little like characters, but more like friends you've known for a long time. I almost didn't want to finish the book because I wanted to keep learning more about them. I didn't want their story to end.
But, alas, I did finish it and I did love it. It hit close to home not only because, like Madeleine, I studied English literature in college (here's a favorite line from the book: English was what people who didn't know what to major in majored in), but also because one of the characters (you'll have to read the book to find out who) suffers from manic depression. The rollercoaster of that disease is well known to me, and those of you who know me well know of which family member--not myself--I speak (and I shall not disclose it here out of respect to that now removed member), and reading about it brought back panic, nervousness, and fear--all of which I experienced until I left for college and was removed from the situation. The descriptions and situations are so real that Eugenides either suffered from the disease himself, or knew someone who did. Research alone could not have been all he relied on as he crafted those scenes.
I am going to end this blog before I reveal too much either way about this book. I can honestly say that if you love books, you will love this one. If you studied English in college, you will love this book. If you love love, you will love this book. I'd even hazard a guess that if you are a girl and ever went to college, you will love this book. It's just a good one. The author won a Pulitzer Prize, too. He's good.
I'd like to conclude this blog with a few more memorable lines from the book. Whereas in Life of Pi, I learned how to use the word lookup feature on my Nook, I learned to highlight in The Marriage Plot. Some of these lines are just too good to forget and I feel compelled to record them here.
"Books aren't about 'real life.' Books are about other books." Think about that one and you just might discover some truth there.
"...religious feeling didn't arise from going to church or reading the Bible but from the most private interior experiences, either of great joy or of staggering pain." Hmm....
"People don't save other people. People save themselves." Amen.
"What if you had faith and performed good works, what if you died and went to heaven, and what if all the people you met there were people you didn't like?" Good grief. Something new for me to worry about!
So that's the end of my favorite lines, and the end of this blog. If those memorable lines don't entice you to read this book, I'm not sure what will!
Happy Reading everyone!
:) Dodie
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