Mis-matched couple (The Amateur Marriage - Anne Tyler)

Member Name: sunmeilan

Product:	The Amateur Marriage - Anne Tyler
Date:	13/08/08 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compelling reading

Disadvantages: Some won't like the fact that it is so true to life

When Pauline and Michael marry during the Second World War, they expect everything to be like roses, but it is soon clear that there are massive cracks in their marriage that can never be covered over. However, after the birth of their three children, it seems that they are prepared to give their marriage a real go. When their oldest daughter runs away from home and they cannot find her, they seem to draw closer together; when they are left with her son to raise, it seems that they will always be together. But is their marriage strong enough to continue? And how have their marital problems affected their children?

Anne Tyler is an American author who writes about everyday people and their lives. I have previously read a couple of her books, most notably The Ladder of Years, which had a lasting effect on me - it is about a woman married with children who walks out on her family in order to 'find' herself. What I liked about the book was Tyler's ability to make this seem perfectly understandable and forgiveable. The Amateur Marriage is very like this in that it tells the story of a couple from both their points of view, warts and all, yet this just makes them seem all the more human. In fact, it made me feel good about myself, because it shows that someone can have faults and yet be a perfectly normal human being at the same time.

I really liked the way the story was told. Divided into chapters, each chapter skips ahead a few years so that I was anxious to find out what had happened to the family since the last chapter. For example, the first chapter is about Pauline and Michael's wedding, the second is about life with their first child, and the third skips forward to after their third child is born. For me, this made the book very easy to read, and there were very definite spots to stop reading, although I found it quite easy to continue reading until late into the night - I finished the book in just two days.

Neither Pauline or Michael are particularly nice people - at least, together they bring out the worst in each other. Pauline is a fluffy blonde who is volatile, loves fun, hates having to stick to a budget and hates being told to 'Calm down!' - Michael's favourite phrase. Michael is far more serious and much calmer, liking to be in control of the family budget and having a fairly distant relationship with his children. However, because the story switches from side to side, the reader gets a really balanced view of the couple and it is easy to see that there are faults on both sides. Quite scarily, we get to see the influence that the couple's relationship has on their children; I just thank my lucky stars I don't have any, because with all my hang-ups, God knows what they would end up like!

If you like chick flicks with happy endings, then this book probably isn't for you. I don't want to give the ending away, but it doesn't tie up loose endings and it isn't really either happy or sad, it just ends. Just like real life really. And that, for me, is the great thing about this book. Nobody's life is perfect and very few people have the happy ending that they hope for and Anne Tyler manages to portray all this, while still making the book completely interesting and compelling. She really made me look at my own life and all its imperfections and realise that it doesn't matter, life will still go on, and then we die. It may sound depressing, but that is life. Not everyone, of course, wants to read about real life, they prefer to escape, and so it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

I do like the way Anne Tyler writes; she has a very smooth writing style that is easy to read, while maintaining a high level of description. It is not just characters that she portrays well, it is also the setting and I could quite easily visualise the backdrop against which the characters were set. Talking about visualisations, I thought the cover for the book was perfect. It shows a young soldier leaning from a train kissing his girl goodbye, but as he kisses her, his eyes give him away - his head is clearly somewhere else completely. This sums up Pauline and Michael's relationship perfectly - all too often, covers seem to have little to do with the story itself.

This is a book to make you think. Nothing exciting happens and so, well-written as it is, I can't really give it more than four stars out of five. However, it is so true to life that I think it is well worth a read, particularly if you are as cynical as me and are fed up with reading about happy endings. Sometimes it is good to know that you are not the only one with a messed up life. It cheered me up no end! Recommended.

The book is available from play.com for £5.49. Published by Vintage, it has 320 pages. ISBN: 9780099469599

Summary: A look at a marriage and its problems