The Story of a Marriage: A Novel

by: Andrew Sean Greer
The Story of a Marriage: A Novel
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A Today Show Summer Reads Pick



A Washington Post Book of the Year

"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."



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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Dazzling
It is not often that a novel that is beautifully written, with great literary quality, also delivers surprises that make me gasp. But this one did exactly that. Surprising, insightful, evocative, delicate--a great story, set in a time and place not too far removed from the present and yet so different. If you have ever loved another person, I urge you to read this book!
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - Sentimental payan to "love" and marriage
Greer's message in this well-written but ultimately unconvincing book is that human attraction and "love" are unpredictable, unknowable, ethereal things that link two unique people in ways that are marvelous even in the most difficult, or should I say, outlandish circumstances."Passion and beauty", he pronounces, "explain nothing ... few of us are beautiful."Of course, it doesn't occur to him that unattractive people just don't have the rapturous love life he, a very attractive man as revealed ... Read More
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - The Plausible Impossible
Pearlie lives live much like any other housewife in Northern California in the early 1950s. She dutifully works to keep the house clean, keeps her polio striken son as healthy and vibrant as possible and her husband happy and calm (so as not to aggrevate his heart condition. All seems well, or at least liveable (like her husband's affair) until a knock at the door turns Pearlie's world upside down.

A white man's startling revelation about his relationship with Pearlie's husband during ... Read More
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - I enjoyed this book
Overall, I found this to be a very thoughtful and beautifully written book.I enjoyed reading it and regretted reaching the end.For me, that's often the ultimate test of a book -- whether or not I'm sorry to say goodbye to the characters.

I agree with others who have commented that the "gotcha" twists were a bit strained.There were a few passages where I found my mind wandering, or found myself growing a bit impatient for the action to pick up.Nevertheless, it is an interesting ... Read More
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - A MUST Read
"Holland and I had talked about our friends and our childhoods and movies and books and politics--we had agreed and disagreed and had our fights and merry moments over a beer--but I think it's fair to say we had never spoken honestly in all ours lives."This quote from A Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer prettily sums up the story's central conflict.The narrator, Pearlie a young mother and wife to her high school sweetheart, Holland grapples with her marriage in 1950's San Francisco.She ... Read More
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