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Availability:Not yet published
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312428280
ISBN: 0312428286
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: March 31, 2009
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Sales Rank: 1956930
Studio: Picador
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A Today Show Summer Reads Pick
NPR Critics’ Lists: Summer 2008
'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 young housewife, finds herself living in the Sunset District in 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. Lyrical, and surprising, The Story of a Marriage is, in the words of Khaled Housseini, 'a book about love, and it is a marvel to watch Greer probe the mysteries of love to such devastating effect.' 'Andrew Greer writes with an aching clarity of the heart. This is an exquisite story with shattering realizations about love.”
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "We think we know the ones we love, and though we should not be surprised to find that we don't, it is heartbreaking nonetheless
The Story of a Marriage is a well-plotted novel about a relationship triangle, that of a woman, her husband, and his friend. The woman, Pearlie Ash, meets a childhood sweetheart named Holland Cook one day on a beach after WWII. In spite of discouragement from his aunts (who are actually his cousins), she chooses to marry him. Their son, Sonny, contracts polio at age three. Four years into their marriage, Buzz Drumer, a man who knew Holland during the war, shows up. Over time, he reveals details of ... Read More
Rating:  - Unbelievably cliché
It seems this story has polarized readers. Some love it, while others intensely dislike the book. I fall into the latter camp. I thought I was really going to like it initially, but then the story went way over the top into unbelievability for me. I found myself disliking it more and more as the pages progressed. It's really almost impossible to speak about the issues I had with the book without giving away some huge spoilers, but I will give you a taste of what it's about.
Holland and ... Read More
Rating: - Microfiche research does not a gook book make...
Improbable boatload of circumstances (black woman, homosexual black man with a secret homosexual white lover, son with polio, from Kentucky, during the war, in San Francisco, ) aside, I heard an excerpt of this book read recently.And, then I heard the author say that he was "surprised at how much information there was on microfiche" to help with his book.
Well, that's obvious.The author took a nightmare of circumstances that is completely unbelievable. Come on, a black woman plotting ... Read More
Rating:  - A multi-layered shimmer that bedazzles
Andrew Sean Greer is a riot of talent. He carves his words with such precision that one can have no choice but to be surrender to his writing. His works, including Story of a Marriage, always deal with the subtle underplay of the human mind, and ultimately reveal the fragility of our existence.
I don't want to reveal the stories - a lot of reviewers have already done that. Besides, with this story, more than the story itself, it is the manner in which it is laid out that matters. Almost like midnight ... Read More
Rating:  - Ultimately rewarding
I had problems with this novel.It started beautifully but soon became heavy-handed.My interest flagged from time to time.However, I pushed through, and found myself totally absorbed and rewarded by the end.There is one helluva good story here: a young married woman is confronted by her husband's former male lover who insinuates his way into their lives with devastating consequences (yes, there are shades of "Far From Heaven" - if he were alive Douglas Sirk would film this with Halle Berry tomorrow). ... Read More
The Story of a Marriage: A Novel |
