The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Have you ever continued reading a book, even after you 'give it a couple of chances'? By that I mean,allowing a book a few pages to let you understand it. Not all books can capture your attention immediately. Some take certain number of pages to get used to.
The Marriage Plot was a book which even after been given chances and intermittent reading, I wasn't able to understand. The blurb describes it as a love triangle, the title sounds like a modern Mills and Boons but the book is neither.
(Spoiler)
Madeleine, Leonard and Mitchell are college students. The men respectively date Madeleine then break up. However, Madeleine and Leonard date again. Mitchell leaves for a planned world tour, but ends up in France and then India.
The rest of the book is ONLY about the couple. Leonard is a patient of depression and the books goes to lengths about how Madeleine takes care of him, the wavy nature of their relationship and the minds of both of these strong personalities.
I'll speak about my positive views first.
I loved Eugenides' style of writing. He reminded me of Steinbeck's force. The kind that immediately hits you as you read the first page. He has a directness which brings the characters talk to you from the pages.
The book is well researched and gives an empathetic stand on depression and the toll it takes on the people affected directly and indirectly.
However as a novel and as a story there is nothing much to hold on to after some time. I felt Eugenides meanders a lot throughout the book. Getting into the individual characters and understanding their backgrounds was cultivated with so much time that I lost the plot.
Have you ever continued reading a book, even after you 'give it a couple of chances'? By that I mean,allowing a book a few pages to let you understand it. Not all books can capture your attention immediately. Some take certain number of pages to get used to.
The Marriage Plot was a book which even after been given chances and intermittent reading, I wasn't able to understand. The blurb describes it as a love triangle, the title sounds like a modern Mills and Boons but the book is neither.
(Spoiler)
Madeleine, Leonard and Mitchell are college students. The men respectively date Madeleine then break up. However, Madeleine and Leonard date again. Mitchell leaves for a planned world tour, but ends up in France and then India.
The rest of the book is ONLY about the couple. Leonard is a patient of depression and the books goes to lengths about how Madeleine takes care of him, the wavy nature of their relationship and the minds of both of these strong personalities.
I'll speak about my positive views first.
I loved Eugenides' style of writing. He reminded me of Steinbeck's force. The kind that immediately hits you as you read the first page. He has a directness which brings the characters talk to you from the pages.
The book is well researched and gives an empathetic stand on depression and the toll it takes on the people affected directly and indirectly.
However as a novel and as a story there is nothing much to hold on to after some time. I felt Eugenides meanders a lot throughout the book. Getting into the individual characters and understanding their backgrounds was cultivated with so much time that I lost the plot.
No comments:
Post a Comment