THE DAILY HEY NOW!

Scroll to Info & Navigation

Review: Jeffrey Eugenides - The Marriage Plot

image


Publisher: Picador USA

Paperback publisher date: September 4th, 2012

The Marriage Plot is Jeffrey Eugenides’s first delve into YA Fiction and I hope that it be his last. This novel has its high points, but I am uncertain if the more glorious moments make up for the lackluster Hanna family and disinterested narrator. The Marriage Plot follows a group of young adults trying to find their way after college graduation in the 80s. Their stories feel an awful lot like the experiences of current graduates who are entering a shrinking workforce. The worry of unemployment and lack of achievement plague the three main characters to the point where one of them decides to backpack through Europe and India – hoping to ‘beat’ the recession. I really enjoyed the tour of Europe and India – it was a romantic idea that brings to mind one of my favorite books: Under the Net by Iris Murdoch. I could see a little bit of Jake Donaghue in Mitchell’s personality. The chapters following Mitchell are enjoyable and funny; however, the sections on Madeleine Hanna are not. The novel begins with a focus on the young Hanna and her obsession with A Lover’s Vow. She has just broken up with her manic depressive bohemian type boyfriend, Leonard, who is far too intelligent to be with a girl like Madeleine anyway. This is followed by a run-down of her history - cheating boyfriends, great grades, shallow friends, and her attempts to fit in with the loners and philosophers on campus when it is obvious she should be in a sorority filled with pampered, sheltered girls. My favorite development: her pretentious thesis on the “Marriage Plot” in 18th century literature. I don’t know if I should attribute the daftness of her thesis to Eugenides ignorance of scholarship on 18th century marriage, or if I should applaud him for intentionally making the most unlikable protagonist in the history of modern literature. The novel is not chronological in anyway; it often feel like pieces of Madeleine’s memory selected by the narrator at whim. We see some of the parties she attends on campus, we watch the four main characters cross paths for the first time, and we watch Madeleine take back her boyfriend Leonard when she should be focusing on a career and reapplying to graduate schools after many rejections. We even watch her cheat on her manic depressive boyfriend while refusing to make herself accountable for the act. The only love story in this tale is the motif of Mitchell pining away for Madeleine from the moment they meet, although it is unclear how the narrator acquires information on Mitchell since said narrator seems to focus on Madeleine and Leonard the most.

The writing in this book is not consistent – the first 18 pages are stale. As a reader, I have no reason to like Miss Hanna and as a college student I simply could not relate. She is an adult about to begin a life outside of college but she still refers to her parents as “Mummy” and “Daddy.” This is simply unbearable. Her obvious life of luxury and privilege is just difficult to stomach. Her inability to grasp the basic concepts taught in her college courses is absolutely horrifying to someone who genuinely enjoys being in academia. Her family is equally distasteful – why do the females have such butchered names? Phyllida? Alwyn? Each time I came across these names, my reading brain refused to go forward because it kept dwelling on possible pronunciations. Their personalities were equally as dreadful as their given names. Alwyn hates being a stay-at-home mother while her husband drops all domestic chores to work and earn money. She decides to abandon her newborn son while pumping breast milk in the bathroom of her sister’s apartment to mail to her husband. Is this a parody of feminism in its hay-day? Phyllida is an insecure mother who expects her children to be carbon copies of herself while they fail at being productive human beings and contribute nothing to society. This horrible stereotyping of woman does not stop with the Hanna gene pool. Claire, a college undergraduate we meet while Mitchell backpacks through France is equally difficult to deal with. She chastises Mitchell for looking at women because it is ‘objectifying,’ she constantly preaches from her text books and college courses and then ends up breaking up with Mitchell’s friend because she thinks she might be a lesbian. I find this to be an inappropriate and unfunny depiction of a college undergraduate – especially one who is ‘smart’ enough to secure the opportunity to study abroad. By the way; turns out Mitchell’s friend is able to deal with the breakup so well because guess what!? He’s gay and in love with Mitchell.

Mitchell and Leonard are much more likable. Mitchell is a religious studies major who is fully aware of his poor choice of major when seeking employment. Leonard, the unfortunate boyfriend of Madeleine is a reasonably productive manic depressive who conducts research on the reproduction of yeast on a full fellowship. Sadly, Eugenides exploits Leonard’s character as a manic depressive and later transforms him into someone so infantile and unpredictable that he seems more like a late stage schizophrenic. Despite my interest in these two characters, they simply do not provide the damage control this novel so badly needs. While the narrator is perfect presenting the tales of Leonard and Mitchell, it seems like this narrator has no interest in our star girl – Madeleine Hanna. The narrator steps away from Madeleine like a squeamish apartment dweller panicking from a roach. Instead of referring to her parents as “mother” and “father,” the narrator is distanced and refers to them by name. Is it that hard to ask for a sentence like: “Madeleine’s mother and father were driving down to watch her graduate?” Why use first names as if these people meant absolutely nothing to me as a reader or to Madeleine as a character? There is also a startling error on page 159(paperback version) in which a sentence fails to maintain verb-tense agreement. The last section of the novel is predictable and distasteful but I dare not ruin that for those of you who still plan to read this book.



The cover of the paperback version of this novel is nice – it reminded me a bit of The Assistant and I was hoping, being a love story, that it would have a similar feel. Instead I was on a bumpy ride of disgust and amusement.

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus