Book Notes: The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Oh Marriage Plot, I picked you knowing nothing more than you are on the best seller's list and your author wrote Middlesex, which I hear is good. I really wanted to like you and I stuck through all 13 hours of you, which for an audiobook is a long time. I liked you enough but I can't say it was true love. Maybe I missed too many of the cultural references, or maybe I just couldn't get into the main character's need to be needed.

The marriage plot is set in the 80's which I found a bit distracting at first, but Eugenides does not overwhelm the reader with cultural references. It was only distracting in the sense that I was trying hard to visualize their 80's outfits, the economy and political climate of the time. The story primarily revolved around a love triangle; Leonard, a manic depressive, Madeline, a well off, beautiful, college student, and Mitchell, the honest, down to earth, boy under the radar.

I suppose my take home lesson from this book was, being close to someone with manic depression is a exhausting and futile endeavor. To Eugenides credit, I did stick with it, and after about half way, I really did want to know what happens to the characters. I don't know how to categorize this book, I'm not sure who would love it, or who would hate it, so I guess it really was kind of blah to me!



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