Tayari Jones’ An American Marriage is at its heart an exploration of loyalty, of marriage and of love. Jones writes in such a sublime way it is hard not to get utterly lost in her world, to let her characters dictate when you eat, sleep and breathe.
An American Marriage is the story of Celestial and Roy; the embodiment of an upwardly mobile couple, as the cover tells us, the American dream. The opening chapters of Jones’ narrative lay out the state of our protagonists marriage prior to Roy being wrongly incarcerated for rape. We then delve into their bond through a series of letters across the five years Roy remains behind bars; We see their love and hope, their pain, their anger and frustration, their misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Jones asks us as readers some very important questions, What does it mean to be married? Is there ever a point at which ones loyalty is no longer expected? When a marriage is tested it will either fall apart or grow even stronger – What happens to Celestial and Roy may well surprise you because it certainly surprised me.
Jones has a remarkable ability to write beautiful dialogue, the conversations within her text are powerful, un-contrived and 100% believable. Her characters are fully filled out and at different points within the narrative each one of them is un-likeable, she creates the most complex and thoroughly uncomfortable situations through out and your perception of each character continues to change across the narrative.
There is a message just bubbling under the surface here and I don’t think its unintentional, this book is about more than marriage, its about more than Celestial, Roy and Andre. Its about Justice and the American justice system. Its a sharp, edgy, honest commentary on the long term consequences of wrongful conviction. Its about the havoc an injustice can reek on our communities and it is an absolute must read.
Jones has written a novel which should be regarded as a work of classic American fiction – she ticks all the boxes needed to have created a stunning work; her setting is vivid and luminous, her characters are well developed, her story is powerful, interesting and beautifully subtle, her timing is exquisite and the twists she has lying on wait for her readers, and nothing short of genius.
That internet quiz that was going around a week or so ago said I should read this, based on the TV shows I watch. Great review, but it doesn’t sound like something I would normally pick! Maybe I’ll branch out a little, since you liked it so much. 🙂
Huh! That’s priceless! What TV shows did you say you watched? I must admit It could make a great mini / limited run series aka Big Little Lies. Branch out give it a try! I’m a bookseller irl and I’d suggest this book to almost anyone who likes good quality writing, its very much character driven not action driven and the language used is sublime.
I can’t remember specifics, but usually I like more Supernatural/iZombie/Walking Dead type shows! I did like Big Little Lies, though, so maybe that skewed my results. Here’s the quiz: https://bookriot.com/?p=153090. I wonder if they would tell you to read this too!
UUUgggh, I kept having to answer None of these. . . so it told me to read Children of Blood and Bone ( probably because I answered Game of Thrones to one answer. . . ) so not my type of book at all. tried to read an arc earlier this year and just could get into it. . . Oh well.