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| The Story of a Marriage: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Andrew Sean Greer
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 1630
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 1.2 x 1
ISBN: 0374108668
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780374108663
ASIN: 0374108668
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
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Product Description
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).
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 "Improbable Possibilities" May 15, 2008
37 out of 50 found this review helpful
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.
 "What is the smallest atom of a wife that cannot be split apart?" May 8, 2008
32 out of 53 found this review helpful
"We think we know the ones we love," author Andrew Sean Greer says throughout this novel, but the characters and the reader soon discover that there are huge gaps in our knowledge even of those we love most dearly. Pearlie Ash meets her first love, Holland Cook, when they are teenagers in Kentucky during World War II. Time and distance separate them for a few years, and then, miraculously, they meet unexpectedly in San Francisco in 1949. Within days they are married. Soon after, they have a child. Settling in the Sunset district outside San Francisco, they lead a quiet life, enjoying their child and their relationship. Pearlie is particularly solicitous of Holland because he has "bad blood" and "a crooked heart."
Then, in 1953, a stranger arrives at their door, looking for Holland whom he knew in the war. For the next six months, Charles "Buzz" Drumer, the wealthy "stranger," is a guest almost every night, but Pearlie is stunned when he privately offers her $100,000 to help him to accomplish something important. As she considers Drumer's offer and what the money would mean for her future, the foundation of her marriage becomes shaky.
(No spoilers.) Greer has so meticulously plotted a series of ensuing surprises that the reader is kept off balance for the entire novel. Playing on the reader's assumptions about characters and plot as the story unfolds, Greer systematically destroys all the reader's expectations, turns perceptions inside out, and keeps the dramatic tension increasing until the resolution. Pearlie becomes a character we care about, a woman who wants only the best for her family but who is not always certain how to ensure that happiness.
As Pearlie, Holland, and Buzz tell their stories, the reader becomes privy to their hopes and dreams, and their fears and sorrows, many of them related to World War II and the Korean conflict. This is also the time of the Rosenberg trial, and Pearlie sees in Ethel Rosenberg a woman whose love for her husband will not allow her to betray him, even at the cost of her own life. Air raid drills and preparations for nuclear disaster become as symbolic as the Rosenbergs' trial in the story of this marriage, and Pearlie, like the mute dog who belongs to her son, is helpless to defend herself from danger. Careful plotting is enhanced by smooth prose, with not a word out of place, and Greer's thoughtful observations about the nature of love and marriage add depth and gravity to a novel which some might otherwise call a "tour de force" because of its clever structure. Innovative and great fun to read. n Mary Whipple
The Confessions of Max Tivoli: A Novel
The Path of Minor Planets: A Novel
How It Was for Me: Stories
Biography - Greer, Andrew Sean (1970-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online
 ' NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARRIAGE " May 22, 2008
23 out of 30 found this review helpful
To all who just loved this book , keep in mind that I am still entitled to my opinion. While I realize it's fiction , pease at least give me something believable , to feel this could happen . Not in this case.
Okay, it's possible and has happened that someone marries a person with gay tendencies ..but, geeze...years go by and suddenly old lover shows up on his wifes , child, and hubby's doorstep because he " KNOWS " that Holland ( hubby ) is still as much in love with him now , as he still is with Holland after all so many eyars ago and will give said wifey $ 100,000.00 to step out of the picture . Sure she's shocked .
Meantime hubby is getting it on with his bosses daughter and wifey is more shocked and sick over this ...what ????? So like how gay can this Holland guy really be and how nuts for Buzz to think his one time lover Holland ( experimenting maybe )he can just show up bearing gifts and $$$$ . Wife tho shocked , thinks about money ...and believe me, after hearing about this gay relationship and his newly formed one with bosses daughter....I say take the money sister and run ! You've got a man who doesn't know which way his ' pendulum ' swings . But, being the saint she is gets rid of girl and Buzz from the picture. Nuff said? I do not normally give plots away ...but, readers I'm trying to save you , especially in this economic crisis . what a load.
Cripes, what a waste of my money ,thank God I didn't pay full price for this piece of pulp . This goes to the donation to local library pile I don't want it on my shelves or my house. If I believed in bookburning , oh what a glow .
Good Period Domestic Melodrama May 14, 2008
16 out of 22 found this review helpful
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.
Far From Heaven, But Change is Coming April 30, 2008
13 out of 25 found this review helpful
Ever since The Stern Librarian read Andrew Sean Greer's last novel The Confessions of Max Tivoli (which appears on my Amazon list of 10 favorite novels), I have been haunted by the question of whether Greer exalts or despises love. The Story of a Marriage is the perfect coda to that earlier novel's proposition that everyone is the great love of someone's life--alas, that great love is rarely mutual. After reading his new novel, I am convinced that Greer is our greatest poet of love. This turns out to also be a book about war and race as well, but it is most powerful and moving in exploring the triangle of affections among Pearlie, Holland and Buzz. The image of the Golden Gate Bridge on the cover reminds me of the poster for a Douglas Sirk melodrama, and Greer evokes both the quaint, Mildred Pierce-ish feeling of 50's northern California, as well as the fog that intrudes from three wars: World War II, the Korean War and The Civil War. What is most remarkable is the way that Greer's repeated use of the words hope and change evokes our current political climate. The book's description of segregation is offhand yet absolutely crucial to the story he tells and the choices Pearlie makes. In this novel, there is no question that Greer feels reciprocal love is possible, even if the 50's was too soon for all kinds of marriage. The Stern Librarian (I am the great love of my Patrons' lives).
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