The Story of a Marriage: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)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.

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