Staff Pick
Addressing the ubiquitous love triangle, The Marriage Plot is a perfectly executed character study of three college students — Leonard, Madeleine, and Mitchell — who, variously, are a couple, are not a couple, were a couple, were never a couple, or were almost a couple. Ah, young love! However, absolutely nothing Eugenides writes is frivolous or insubstantial. The painful sucker punch delivered in both Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides is absent from The Marriage Plot, but the book doesn't miss it. The Marriage Plot is long on emotion and so accurately reflects private expressions of angst, love, regret, and need that it feels like reading someone's diary (or maybe your own). Taking on subjects as enormous as mental illness, classism, meaningful work, religious faith, higher education, charity, self-knowledge, and the nature of relationships, The Marriage Plot asks, Is it sometimes better to not get what you want? Eugenides is a masterful writer who doesn't shy away from uncomfortable emotions, and in his hands everyday issues reveal a deep and complex truth. Once again, the very long wait between his books has definitely been worth it. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com