A NEW YORK TIMES AND WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK A 2018 BEST OF THE YEAR SELECTION OF NPR * TIME * BUSTLE * O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE * THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS * AMAZON.COM OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB 2018 SELECTION LONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION “A moving portrayal of the effects of a wrongful conviction on a young African-American couple.” –Barack Obama “Haunting . . . … of a wrongful conviction on a young African-American couple.” –Barack Obama
“Haunting . . . Beautifully written.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Brilliant and heartbreaking . . . Unforgettable.” —USA Today
“A tense and timely love story . . . Packed with brave questions about race and class.” —People
“Compelling.” —The Washington Post
“Epic . . . Transcendent . . . Triumphant.” —Elle
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.
This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward–with hope and pain–into the future.
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Tayari Jones is blessed with vision to see through to the surprising and devastating truths at the heart of ordinary lives, strength to wrest those truths free, and a gift of language to lay it all out, compelling and clear. That has been true from her very first book, but with An American Marriage that vision, that strength, and that truth-telling voice have found a new level of artistry and power.
Heartbreaking but an important and memorable read — I keep reflecting on the themes of this book days after finishing it.
I love books I can feel. I could see the characters and feel their pain, happiness and angst. If you like great stories and love great writing, go buy An American Marriage right now!
I got swept up in this book and the story of a marriage that got derailed by an unjust prison sentence. Jones brings us into the perspective of the central characters in a seamless way. You can understand why they do the things they do, even as they hurt one another.
I loved the writing. It grabbed me from the very first page and made me want to keep reading, no matter what the story was or where it led. As for the story, it was devastating, complicated, and tragic. I read it so fast, I didn’t quite have time to develop expectations of how I wanted it to end, and excused myself from passing judgement on any of the characters. This surprised me, because I find I usually need someone to root for, but I think that may be a testament to how cleverly the story was told, from the perspective of its three main characters.
Recommended for anyone in the mood for a tender meditation on love, commitment, and marriage.
Tayari Jones is a great storyteller. An American Marriage holds the reader from first page to last, with her compassionate observation, her clear-eyed insight and her beautifully written and complex characters. Jones understands love and loss and writes with passion and precision about the forces that move us all from one to another.
A thought-provoking look at a marriage threatened by the husband’s wrongful imprisonment.The author does a good good of job of examining all sides of the emotional issue, but my sympathies were always with Roy.
An exceptionally moving story of false accusation and imprisonment that affects a young marriage. AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE was a wonderful story and I absolutely loved it. I got to meet Tayari at Southern Festival Of Books and she’s just as lovely as her book.
This book is a page-turner. I loved the writing and the way the story unfolded. It’s the story of Celestial and Roy and Andre. It’s a love story with a tragic twist. I wasn’t sure who to root for, but the ending was satisfying for me. Thank you, Tayari Jones, for the beautifully written story.
“I believed that our marriage was a fine-spun tapestry, fragile but fixable. We tore it often and mended it, always with a silken thread, lovely but sure to give way.”
An American Marriage is a beautifully written but tragic story of a newlywed couple torn apart when he is falsely convicted of a crime. Told from three different viewpoints, I felt that I knew each character and could see each side of the story.
This book is quiet and beautiful and oh-so-powerful, and the kind of book I need to stop and take a breathe after because I’m not ready to move onto anything else. A must read.
A slow burn of a novel that swept me up and wouldn’t let go. We get to know and love the young couple at the heart of the novel before we witness the terrifying scene in the motel, when they are forced to surrender the clear promise of the future they have dreamt of and worked for. Because each character is rendered with such tenderness, and because the injustice they face is one so many innocent black men and their families have faced, the novel has the terrible, resounding ring of truth.
My grandmother was a white sharecropper in Mississippi who told me stories of how her fingers bled from picking cotton. As a young man, my grandfather suffered deep and frequent humiliations for his poverty, But despite the enormous difficulties they faced, I have always been aware that, their skin color granted them certain clear privileges in the pre-civil rights Deep South–namely, the privilege of safety. Jone’s story felt personal to me, somehow intertwined with the reality of my family’s own complicated history, in a way that few novels do.
An American Marriage is a surprise from one page to the next — though the premise seems so predictable: successful young couple runs into a major bump and the marriage is in trouble….Well, that is an understatement. Without giving too much away, it can be said that the trouble is so heart-breaking and unjust, and sadly, true to life, in this day and age, that I could not put the book down until I knew, or hoped, things would work out for Celeste and Roy, an upwardly mobile Black couple enjoying life in Atlanta until they aren’t. The story goes back and forth, and in and out, with point of view from the main characters and her old friend, Andre. The writer skillfully shows each one’s thoughts — though sometimes the characters sound alike and I had to check the chapter head at times to make sure I was on the right one. Some chapters are only a page or two, so it is a roller coaster ride from one character to the next. At three in the morning, I became a bit dazed trying to stay on track, but I couldn’t put the book down. Incidentally, I love Jones’ detail and warmth, the wit and wisdom, including tradition and context, among these characters. To know them is to love them. And they surprise you though Celeste’s artistic bent seems to keep her from bending. The writer has masterfully drawn Roy, his pain and surprising journey, and for this, Jones especially deserves kudos.
An American Marriage read like modern-day classic. I can see that this is a novel that will continue to influence readers for generations, if it gets the attention it deserves. Before I read this novel, I checked a few reviews on Goodreads, and one of them suggested reading this novel as blindly as possible. As soon as I read that, I stopped reading reviews and began reading the book. I think that is good advice. I think picking this one up without knowing too much information helps it to unfold organically, without any preconceived ideas. And while there were some aspects of the novel that seemed too coincidental at times, I found myself deeply enthralled by each page. I think it’s a story I won’t soon forget.
A popular novel, this one is also a timely one to read given the Black Lives Matter protests worldwide at the moment.
The story is about a young, black educated couple. Roy, a rising executive and Celestial an upcoming artist, are newly married and intensely in love. Their lives are shattered when Roy is arrested, charged and jailed for twelve years for something he didn’t do.
His incarceration tests their love and their relationship and the dilemma is posed as we question ourselves – what would you do if this happened to you? Married for only eighteen months, the couple were still exploring the dimensions of their relationship. He’s in jail clinging onto hopes and dreams of a life with her. She moves on, opens her business and achieves accolades in the art world. How can their relationship survive when they grow in different directions without the same experiences? What happens to their families and what positions do they take?
When Roy is eventually let out, he tries to pick up from where they left off. The perception of what their lives should look like, seem almost patriarchal as we see the influential role the fathers of Celestial, Andre and Roy play in their children’s lives.
This is a love story of sorts told by three different people. The third character is Andre, Celestial’s long-time friend who introduced her to Roy and who stands by her. The structure is interesting as some of the story is told via their letters. Roy’s angst is particularly moving and we feel for him over the injustice of his incarceration and the consequential fallout on his family.
Without giving away spoilers, the person who he shares his jail cell seemed conveniently coincidental and I must admit to an eye-roll, yet it’s important to the story. Everything else is believable as the plot unfolds.
The characters are interesting and I warmed to Big Roy and Olive, Roy’s parents. Even though I understood her, I found difficulty relating to Celestial and she seemed remote particularly in the closing scenes. Her thoughts and feelings seemed to be fade away. Perhaps that’s what the author intended – for we fully witness the change in Roy through his thoughts and actions.
It’s an enjoyable read and beautifully written. I’d recommend it.
My book group will be discussing An American Marriage in December, so I read it now – listened to it, actually – to get a leg up on a time of year when I’ll be immersed in my own writing and less able to read anything deep.
An American Marriage is deep. The premise is of a marriage that is rocked when the male half is sent to prison – for a long time – for a crime he didn’t commit. The fact that this man is African-American, that the victim saw black without features, that the judge was more concerned with wrapping up the trial than finding a just verdict, adds light to NFL players taking a knee in protest of a faulty criminal justice system.
But this book isn’t about politics. It is about love and the things that test its strength. Yes, it’s about injustice. But is it quintessentially black? No. I kept thinking that the events and emotions described could as easily have had to do with any minority as with a black one, and while wrongful imprisonment is a major theme, economic disparity is another.
I wish I had read this book in print. If so, I might have given it five stars, rather than four. The audiobook had two readers, female and male for those different POVs, but neither one gave the main character, Celestial, the strength I felt she warranted. Actually, most of the characters sounded weak in this audio version. Had I read this book in print, I’d have imbued them with strength. Because I did hear that in my mind. It was the point of hope in An American Marriage. It was what made this book both tragic and uplifting, certainly worth the read.
Anyone who has been married or in a significant relationship knows how life can sometimes sucker punch that relationship. But in this book, the false accusations and consequences (prison) are a K.O. I don’t know what struck me more – that I didn’t know who I wanted to win this marriage battle because they both tugged at me? Or that the injustice of what happened to Roy is woven in as a given? Very thought-provoking.
I really loved listening to this book. It opens your eyes. It hurts your heart. You would have hoped the ending would have been a happily ever after, even though in some aspects it was, it was not what I had hoped for. I feel like in the Roy was still given the short stick since he didn’t get all he wanted in life.
I love An American Marriage and I’m so excited for this book to be in the world. Tayari’s novel is timely, thoughtful, and beautifully written. Reading it, I found myself angry as hell, laughing out loud, choking up and cheering. A gem of a book.
This book had my stomach in knots. The lens of what’d going on now with Black lives intersecting with law enforcement, probably amped up my reaction. Masterfully told story. Felt for each perspective, except a little less for Roy at times, because of his level of wavering faithfulness. Fascinating read, wonderfully engaging story telling.