Jeffrey Eugenides: The Marriage Plot
English language
The Marriage Plot is a 2011 novel by the American writer, Jeffrey Eugenides. The novel grew out of a manuscript that Eugenides began after the publication of his sophomore Pulitizer Prize-winning novel, Middlesex. Eugenides has stated that he worked on the novel for about five or six years, and that portions are loosely based on his collegiate and post-collegiate experiences. The book is both a realist story about marriage and a postmodern, metafictional commentary on the kind of story it tells.The novel was well received by many critics, and was featured on year-end best of 2011 lists.
This could have been so much better. Disappointingly glib and rather sexist, with a somewhat cheaply earned sense of 80s academic zeitgeist that keeps it readable. The portrait of David Foster Wallace's manic depression is the only really touching thing in here: the main character, Madeleine, is unpleasantly shallow and might as well be living in a Herman Wouk novel.
