That's right! After
almost 6 impossibly long months, I've finally finished Jeffrey Eugenides's
latest novel, The Marriage Plot! And Jesus Christ, it's about time.
I picked up The Marriage
Plot for two reasons: 1) I thought the title was interesting; 2) I liked
the cover art. (Very shallow methods here, friends.)
Before Marriage
Plot, I had never read anything my Jeffrey Eugenides. I had heard of Middlesex
and The Virgin Suicides (it seems like everyone has read that, at least. What bandwagon to I have to jump on to join?), but I
never really looked at the authors or put two and two together. I don't really
consider the author when I'm looking at new books, unless I'm not looking for anything particular and want to flesh out my current collection. I guess
it's because I'm kind of still starting out in the world of modern adult
fiction, whereas I'm pretty familiar with the "classic literature"
and YA circuit.
So, my question to
those out there who have read Eugenides before: Does Eugenides always write
like this? The book felt like every time some actual plot started to peek
through and make some headway, he would STOP EVERYTHING and like, describe the
process behind picking the wallpaper of the character's childhood bedroom.
Quick tribute to my (and The
Marriage Plot’s main character’s) namesake,
Madeline.
It was like detaildetaildetaildetailPLOTdetaildetaildetaildetaildetaildetailPLOT.
“Let me tell you the life history of Madeleine/Leonard/Mitchell/the wallpaper/let’s
talk about sex, bay-be/let's talk about you and me/theory and books” ETC. I got very, very tired of this
fad. Luckily (for Eugenides or for me…?), the constant details/backstory
stopped about halfway through the novel. That’s when I actually started to make
some real progress on the book, and I think that my reluctance to deal with all
of the background information was the reason that I was so reluctant to read
the book; I guess I felt like I was moving too slow? That no matter how long I
read it wouldn’t matter?
One problem I had with the book was the language that
Eugenides used. It’s obvious that he’s got a great vocabulary, and a lot of his
prose was really quite poetic and wonderful. But there were times, for example
when sex/masturbation was brought up, that the language became clunky and
awkward. I don’t know if this was on purpose or not, and I’m not against using
plan words in lieu of longer, more elegant ones… But I guess it interrupted the
rhythm of the text, is what I’m trying to say.
But I don’t want to make it seem like I didn’t like this
book; I mean, yeah, at times the style frustrated me, and yeah, sometimes I
wish that I had been able to move through it better… but I do think that it was
an interesting read. I’ll probably read it again, because I worry that I missed
some of Eugenides’s question to his audience (which was the possibility of a great love story taking place in modern times). To be honest, I feel like I missed the Eugenides's Answer to the Question; the book ended very quickly, and the final "reveal" was very abrupt. I did like the idea of setting this book in the
‘80s, and how he utilized settings like Detroit, Providence, and Storybrook NJ.
I feel like that was done well, especially to reflect the characters’ own
personal values and thoughts.
I wouldn’t mind reading something else by Eugenides, and
when I finish some of the books that I’m working on now, I’ll probably pick up Middlesex or The Virgin Suicides. His writing intrigues me, and it makes me want
to think deeper about some things… namely, marriage, love, relationships, and
our own connections with spirituality and insight. What makes a good
relationship? Do we have soulmates, or just people whom we can’t let go of? What is an "aha" moment? Is it still possible to have faith like Mother Teresa? And are we the products of
our environments, or are we fated by our genetic code?
Finals time is nearly over, so hopefully I’ll be able to
post sometime soon.
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