- 'The Marriage Plot' by Jeffrey Eugenides was first published in October 2011
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux
- 416 Pages
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides is very different from his last and most popular novel,
Middlesex. Where
Middlesex is a large story with colorful characters and action that encompasses decades and major events in history,
The Marriage Plot is a character driven novel about three recent college graduates in the early 1980s. Where
Middlesex featured a likable, sympathetic narrator,
The Marriage Plot features three characters who are mostly lost and only partially likable. What unites the novels is Eugenides' superb writing. His mastery of words kept me reading
The Marriage Plot for hours at a time despite the slow plot and somewhat depressing tone.
What is
The Marriage Plot about? The question reminds me of a quote from the novel, when one of the main characters, Madeleine, notices the sudden popularity of
Derrida's Of Grammatology on campus and asks a friend about it. "When Madeleine asked what the book was about, she was given to understand by Whitney that the idea of a book being 'about' something was exactly what this book was against, and that, if it was 'about' anything, then it was the need to stop thinking of books as being about things" (23). Indeed, Madeleine, who loves Victorian literature and clear stories, comes to realize as an English major that the emergence of semiotics has made the books that drew her into the English department extremely out of vogue. "Madeleine had always been popular at school. Years of being popular had left her with the reflexive ability to separate the cool from the uncool, even within subgroups, like the English department, where the concept of cool didn't appear to obtain" (25).
In The Marriage Plot, Eugenides plays with the concept of modern novels not being allowed to be "about" anything. The Marriage Plot is in some ways not clearly about anything and in some ways a revamping of the novels the character Madeleine loves -- romantic, Victorian stories that are driven by marriage.
Throughout Madeleine's story in
The Marriage Plot, there is an examination of life in the English department of a prestigious university. I'm not sure if everyone would enjoy these parts of the novel as much as I did, but they definitely reminded me of my experience as an English major, especially since I, like Madeleine, tend to like books that are "about" something and are not necessarily "cool" in literary circles. I loved a line toward the end of the novel when Madeleine was looking for inspiration from one of her favorite children's book characters, and changes the rhyme to say, "And to writers like Camus,
Madeline just said, 'Poo poo'" (369).
The two other main characters in The Marriage Plot are Mitchell and Leonard, both of whom love Madeleine. Mitchell is a Religious Studies graduate who heads to India for a year after graduation, all the while examining deep questions of meaning, God and existence and pining for Madeleine from afar. Leonard is a bipolar scientist who Madeleine loves despite the often miserable state of their relationship.
The Marriage Plot moves between the viewpoints of the three characters, but is mostly told from Madeleine and Mitchell's perspectives. The novel is introspective. Through these characters, though, Eugenides explores many other topics -- religion, feminism, academia, class. The story is large even though the plot is small.
Overall, I'm not sure I would recommend the novel. It depends what you like. Where I would say most readers would enjoy
Middlesex, I'm not sure that is true of
The Marriage Plot. If you appreciate literary novels with excellent writing, I would definitely read it. The overall tone is sad, though, so if you prefer feel good novels with a clear story, then I would skip this one.
Reading The Marriage Plot for book club? Check out these Marriage Plot Book Club Discussion Questions.
