Like with The
Chaperone, I am again only reading now what everyone was reading last year (or
the year before last? I am so out of touch) – Jeffrey Eugenides’ third book, The Marriage Plot. The eponymous marriage
plot is the term for the trope used by authors where the plot revolves around
who a heroine will marry. This book asks if, in a time where women can be
financially and socially independent and divorce is easily accessible, does the
marriage plot have a place in literature?
Based on this text, the answer is a resounding no. The book
opens on graduation day at Brown College in the ‘80s. Madeline has woken up hungover
in last night’s clothes, which are marked with a suspicious stain. Over the
first few chapters there are parents, gowns, obligations both fulfilled and
unfulfilled and we are introduced to the subjects of our marriage plot: the
beautiful Madeline, tortured Leonard and earnest Martin (reportedly based on Jonathon
Franzen, David Wallace Foster and the author respectively). Martin loves
Madeline, Madeline loves Leonard and Leonard isn’t in a position to really love
anyone. More on that later.
The first section is mainly Madeline’s story and I devoured
it. It’s not that Madeline’s a particularly likeable character but moments of
this part felt so true – like the
contradictory feelings of guilt and pleasure you have when you spend time with
someone who likes you but you don’t like them back but you like the feeling of
them liking you which in turns makes you feel like a bad person. Or that moment
where some guy in a tutorial is being a complete wanker and you look around
expecting to find the group rolling their eyes and see that everyone else is
enraptured and you’re the only one who can see the ridiculousness of the
situation. There’s lots of discussions about books and theory which I, as an
English graduate loved (although I didn’t study literature so some of it was
gibberish to me), but I did wonder if someone who wasn’t familiar with
postmodernism and literary theory would give enjoy the book at all. I am using
semiotics in my thesis and I loved the scenes that featured the
class discussions, particularly Madeline’s relief when she finds a writer whose
sentences follow on logically from each other (postmodern writing is notoriously
dense). The first 125 pages of The
Marriage Plot is fabulous and enjoyable and exactly I expected from the
author of a great novel like Middlesex. It
was great!
I just wish I’d stopped reading on page 126. After the
characters left college, I can’t put my finger on exactly what happened but the
story got boring. Mitchell goes to
Europe and then India to find himself. Leonard has a bipolar episode and is
hospitalised, then Madeline and Leonard to go Cape Cod so he can do a postgrad
research fellowship. The focus moves from Madeline and the marriage plot onto
Martin and Leonard’s personal journeys. The thing is, though, it’s actually not
very interesting to read about self-conscious privileged educated white men not
do much except reflect on themselves and change geographical location. One of
the main criticisms levelled against The
Marriage Plot is that it’s pretentious. I didn’t feel it was pretentious as
much as it was indulgent – indulgent in length and in its treatment of its male
characters (to quote Woody Allen, it suffered from the three esses –
self-indulget, sophomoric and solipsistic). I skimmed the last 200 pages,
skipping Mitchell’s Eat Pray Ponder Indian journey in full. It was a struggle
to make it to the end of the book and one I probably wouldn’t have done if it
wasn’t a Eugenides novel – there was always a faint hope it would improve. It
didn’t. My recommendation is to stop at 126 pages and read about the rest on
Goodreads – that’s exactly what I wish I’d done.
Eugenides pulls off an efficient and effective feminist
bait-and-switch with this novel. Books with a marriage plot have women and
their social and economic roles and power at their centre. Eugenides opens a
book with a modern-day marriage plot with a strong and interesting female
protagonist but, after the trio graduate, Madeline shifts from having a voice
and agency to being defined solely by her role as love object, nurse, wife and
daughter. The marriage plot in The
Marriage Plot is not a love triangle but a power struggle with a woman as
the object of exchange and possession. I’m giving this book three stars - five stars for its brilliant beginning
minus two stars for the woeful ending and hidden misogyny.
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