An American Marriage

After reading this book it is not surprising to me that it was listed on so many “best of 2018” lists. It is a well written novel and was a great choice for a book club discussion. There was so much to consider and talk about. From the title to the characters and their struggles and choices to the questions it asks the reader to consider and contemplate, it's a great book.

„W trakcie pisania tej książki nieraz się obawiałam, że nie zdołam rozwikłać splątanych losów moich bohaterów ani rozstrzygnąć konfliktów, które ich dzielą i łączą zarazem” – takim zdaniem swe Podziękowania rozpoczyna autorka Naszego małżeństwa. Obawy okazały się niesłuszne. Tayari Jones stworzyła świetny, pełen skrajnych emocji portret młodego małżeństwa, którego związek zostaje wystawiony na próbę. Niewinny Roy trafia do więzienia, a Celestial musi nauczyć się żyć jako żona człowieka skazanego na wiele lat. Czy ich związek przetrwa?
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Nic dziwnego, że Nasze małżeństwo nominowano do National Book Award. To książka poprowadzona po prostu genialnie! 👉🏻 po części powieść epistolarna, złożona z listów małżonków, po części opowieść, której narrację prowadzi na zmianę każde z nich. Dodaje to historii swego rodzaju autentyzmu. Poznajemy Roya i Celestial z różnych stron, dzięki czemu ich portrety zyskują na wiarygodności. To postaci niesamowicie złożone, wielowymiarowe, wywołujące naszą – Czytelników sympatię, a czasem także i niechęć.
Nasze małżeństwo to powieść o miłości i niesprawiedliwości. To historia przepełniona namiętnością, żalem oraz goryczą niewypowiedzianych słów i chwil, których bohaterom nie było dane wspólnie przeżyć. To książka skłaniająca do refleksji nad definicją miłości i małżeństwa. Dziwi mnie tylko jedno – że Tayari Jones tak wiele emocji i myśli udało się przekazać tak prostym, a zarazem pięknym językiem i zmieścić na niespełna 400 stronach. Brawo!

Ugh, so good. The section told via the letters between Roy and Celestial is a particular favorite - even though there's no narrator in that section, it brought the characters to life for me in a new way.

I selected An American Marriage for the library's first book club meeting for several reasons. It was at the top of almost everyone's Best Books of 2018 lists, every patron who read it only had good things to say, and someone donated a couple copies while I was trying to decide on a book.

I may have put off reading it for a few years if not for the book club because of all the hype surrounding it; it's hard to be disappointed when you don't have any expectations. An American Marriage fully lived up to its praise. I also wasn't drawn to the plot. It seemed like something I should read but probably wouldn't like. I enjoyed this book because it was driven by the characters and their relationships.

I wasn't, however, prepared for how frustrating the characters would be. I didn't like them, but I couldn't stop reading in order to find out what happened to them. And that's a testament to Tayari Jones' skill as an author. These people she crafted were flawed and real, but I wanted everything to turn out alright for them.

More of a love story than I expected, but I was still never quite sure where it was all headed. Though beautifully written and heartbreaking, I didn't feel like I ever got to know enough about the characters to really root for any of them. It's worth the read, but if you're hoping for an examination of race, class, or the justice system, you might be disappointed.

I've been trying to do actual reviews for everything I read because I enjoy writing reviews, and also I think it helps me to remember the things I've read. Which is why it sucks that I can't muster up some words about An American Marriage. That is not a reflection on the book at all; I thought it was excellent, truly. But it fell in my lap at the exact most terrible time in my life for reading and processing things, and I unintentionally put it down for a couple of weeks. It was easy to pick back up where I left it and finish when I was ready.

Sorry, Tayari Jones, you deserve better.

4.5 Woooow, this was beautifully tragic. The writing was excellent, especially at the sentence level but the emotional arc was impressively intricate, and I felt so compelled to know what would happen with these characters. It is a necessary emotional gut-punch of a novel.

Listened to the audiobook, and it was a real treat, brilliant, mesmerising narration. The story is heartbreaking but wonderfully told. You might not always agree with the choices that the characters make but they are written so realistically that you can completly empathise with them.

This is a good old fashioned love triangle novel with a contemporary setting. The three main characters are young African Americans who are up and coming in their own ways. Roy and Celestial are newlyweds, while Andre and Celestial have known each other since infancy. Roy and Andre are college friends. When Roy goes to prison for a rape he did not commit, their relationships begin to shift.

The story is told from the perspectives of Roy, Celestial,and Andre in turn. Each character is both sympathetic and flawed. I spent about an equal amount of time being mad at each of them and rooting for them, although by the end of the story I had a clear favorite of the three.

This is a really enjoyable book with a deep story to tell about love and marriage.

Not sure there's such a thing as a perfect novel, but this comes pretty damn close. Jones takes a structure that's starting to feel cliche (the multi-perspectives that work so well in [b:A Game of Thrones 13496 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) George R.R. Martin https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436732693s/13496.jpg 1466917] and [b:Gone Girl 19288043 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397056917s/19288043.jpg 13306276] and that now everybody is trying to use) and breaths new life in it. The narrative perspectives aren't a he-said/she-said, they are complementary, meshing together to show us the complexities of love and marriage and family. It's a masterfully structured novel. Definitely should be considered one of the best of 2018.

Not sure there's such a thing as a perfect novel, but this comes pretty damn close. Jones takes a structure that's starting to feel cliche (the multi-perspectives that work so well in [b:A Game of Thrones 13496 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) George R.R. Martin https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436732693s/13496.jpg 1466917] and [b:Gone Girl 19288043 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397056917s/19288043.jpg 13306276] and that now everybody is trying to use) and breaths new life in it. The narrative perspectives aren't a he-said/she-said, they are complementary, meshing together to show us the complexities of love and marriage and family. It's a masterfully structured novel. Definitely should be considered one of the best of 2018.

Reading Challenge category: a book on the NYT bestseller list for more than 10 weeks

For the Read Harder Challenge, an Oprah Book Club selection.

*4.25/5☆

“But home isn't where you land; home is where you launch. You can't pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.”

Writing: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Enjoyment: 4.5/5

My heart wasn't ready for this. This book was phenomenal, I can understand why Oprah picked this as her book club pick. This book is so raw and full of emotion. Tayari Jones did such a great job in making you feel every emotion the characters where going through. I loved that this wasn't just a love story between partners but between family too. I may or may not have cried more than once while reading this. This book was so unique to me because it wasn't the type of love story that you'd think. Its complicated and difficult to explain without completely spoiling the book for y'all. I was rooting for all of the characters especially Celestial she was my favorite but, both her and Roy deserve eternal happiness. Roy annoyed me at times if I'm being honest. I lowkey fell in love with Andre, he was so cute I just wanted to hug him at times. Y'all just need to read this beauty of a book!!!

Y'ALL TELL ME THAT I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT THINKS THIS BUT MICHAEL B JORDAN WOULD BE AN AMAZING ROY IF THIS EVER BECOMES A MOVIE!!!

*4.25/5☆

“But home isn't where you land; home is where you launch. You can't pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.”

Writing: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Enjoyment: 4.5/5

My heart wasn't ready for this. This book was phenomenal, I can understand why Oprah picked this as her book club pick. This book is so raw and full of emotion. Tayari Jones did such a great job in making you feel every emotion the characters where going through. I loved that this wasn't just a love story between partners but between family too. I may or may not have cried more than once while reading this. This book was so unique to me because it wasn't the type of love story that you'd think. Its complicated and difficult to explain without completely spoiling the book for y'all. I was rooting for all of the characters especially Celestial she was my favorite but, both her and Roy deserve eternal happiness. Roy annoyed me at times if I'm being honest. I lowkey fell in love with Andre, he was so cute I just wanted to hug him at times. Y'all just need to read this beauty of a book!!!

Y'ALL TELL ME THAT I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT THINKS THIS BUT MICHAEL B JORDAN WOULD BE AN AMAZING ROY IF THIS EVER BECOMES A MOVIE!!!

There may be something in the fact that this book is called An American Marriage and that it made me so incredibly angry at times. Part of my anger was directed at the injustices that were on full display throughout the novel. This is a story of a black man, wrongfully convicted of a crime, who loses so much. But most of my anger was directed at the characters at the center of this story—how they could be so despicable and unfair to one another.

Celestial and Roy's marriage is based on passionate love and selfish gain. They want the best their spouse has to offer and when that isn't good enough, they have no qualms with wounding one another. Ultimately, it's all about their individual wants and needs. Both Celestial and Roy have their fair share of flaws. Add best friend Andre into the mix and you have three horrible people, each justifying their actions as moral and necessary.

Repeatedly, I found myself taking sides. Roy would do something beyond forgiveness and I'd side with Celestial. Then Celestial would one up Roy. Back and forth, these two characters along with Andre elicited strong emotions from this reader. That's good writing, but it's infuriating. So while I wanted to throw the book in the trash on more than one occasion, I couldn't fault the novel or the author for this intense displeasure.

What's most impressive about An American Marriage is how much happens in such a tight space. The story itself has enough content to fill another couple hundred pages. Jones uses the space most effectively, weaving tight sentences and keeping the story focused. Also, the novel tackles themes of not only injustice, but loyalty and betrayal, love and marriage, dreams and realities, pride and human frailty.

An excellent, balanced depiction of how injustice can harm, An American Marriage is a riveting story that's biggest flaw is that it fizzles at the end. Many readers say “the ending disappoints” about a great many books. I guess we have an idea of how we want a book to end and when it doesn't shape our predetermined mold, we like to express that we could've done better. I try not to raise this complaint often as I do recognize that it is trite. I have no desire to say “I could've done it better,” as I doubt I could have; regardless of the direction Jones decides to go, I felt that she tried to wrap up the story much too quickly. It's all so neatly packaged up to a point, then it feels like a bow is haphazardly thrown on the whole thing so it could meet that magic 300 page limit. It's a great novel overall, but I really hoped for more weight in those concluding chapters.

I've been meaning to read more of Tayari Jones' work ever since she first made an impression on me with her contributions to The Secret Miracle. I strongly agreed with several of the answers she provided about her writing practices and beliefs. I'm glad the release of this novel pressured me to return to her work. With the imprint left behind by An American Marriage, I am hopeful that I will get around to her first two novels before she publishes her next.

I received a galley of this book to read and review. This has not influenced my thoughts or opinions.

Damn, this book was good. It alternates perspectives across three characters, and it's ultimately a story about love. The love you feel at the beginning of a marriage. The love you feel when it's unrequited and then fulfilled. A fatherly love. The love of saying goodbye. Love that is lost.

This was about to be a 4-star book for me until the epilogue, which I felt really brought the book together and gave it a closure that I really appreciated. Jones has this incredible way with prose where she makes the most astute observations sometimes, and alternates them with language that is evocative yet compact.

An American Marriage is what I had hoped The Course of Love by Alain de Botton would be.

“Marriage is between two people. There is no studio audience.”

“One of the hurdles of adulthood is when holidays become measuring sticks against which you always fall short.”

“Hope woke up with a growl like a hungry stomach.”

“How did we end up here? My key works, but you won't let me in.”

“When I looked at her looking at me, I became what she thought I was.”

Great read! This novel has so many levels to it. What is marriage? What binds us to people? Would your marriage survive circumstances beyond your control? I liked that Jones gave the perspectives of Roy, Celestial and Andre. There is no clear right or wrong choices. I really enjoyed this novel.
I have a feeling that when this novel is released it will be the natural choice for book groups. So many things to discuss. Thanks so much to netgalley for the chance to read this book!