I really truly loved this book, and even though it clocks in at just under 400 pages, wanted it to be longer. I wanted to keep reading about the lives of Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell. Eugenides’ characters approached the flesh-and-bone specters of characters from the well-worn classics his readers and Madeleine love so dearly.
Madeleine’s character is the driving force of the book, we worry about her, we secretly encourage her. Even though the other two protagonists, Leonard and Mitchell, are well-developed and lovable too, it’s their relation to Madeleine that matters, not themselves. Each has their tragic flaw- Madeleine is so uncertain, Leonard is mentally ill, and Mitchell’s religious quest seems idealistic and desperate. But what we want is for them to realize how to fix themselves, get well, grow up, not as much for them to find love. It’s the reflection of our modern culture that Madeleine’s well-roundedness, education, independence, and future matter more than her sexual and romatic relationships.
With all the griping about the end of the novel, the end of books, and the death of realism, Eugenides’ THE MARRIAGE PLOT couldn’t have come at a better time. THE MARRIAGE PLOT isn’t trying to upend these popular exclamations, but it’s cause for some deliberation. Eugenides has succeded where critical essays have proclaimed inevitable failure- to write a realistic, long, and engrossing novel. I find it interesting that these proclamations continue, as many authors have contradicted them with their work, but for some reason, THE MARRIAGE PLOT seems like an even sweeter victory for fiction. It’s sure to sell well, it’s modelled after centuries-old conventions, and the female point-of-view is well-written by a male writer.
THE MARRIAGE PLOT seems to defy convention by embracing it, more reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice than The Corrections.
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