The Marriage Plot in Reading 1001

Aug 09, 2015 Anita Pomerantz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books

Loved, loved this book. Kicking myself for not reading it sooner as it has been on my TBR since it came out in 2011. Frightening.

The Marriage Plot is the story of a love triangle. Set in the 80's, primarily at Brown University, Madeleine is about to graduate. A fellow student and religious studies major, Mitchell, is "in love", or maybe it might be better to say obsessed with Madeleine. However, she is in love with and in a relationship with brilliant, but bi-polar, Leonard.

To my surprise, the A ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2011 Ashley rated it did not like it

This was one of the worst books I have ever read. It seemed to me like Eugenides tried way too hard to be intellectual and completely crossed over into being pretentious. The plot was a good one but by the time you have to muddle through all the unnecessary "smart" parts, like the in depth discussion of semiotics that filled the first part and then it went on and on. I do have to note that I was an English major and it still did not appeal to me. None of the characters were all that well develop ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2013 Kristel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-challenge, us-literature

I really liked this book on so many levels. This is a good author! He has written only 3 books and all are good. Published in 2011 and one of the most recent add ons to the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. All of his books have made the list. The setting is Brown University, three college friends who are graduating and going into their first post graduate year. It's a coming of age book as are all of the author's books. This book could be considered romance, a classic love triangle, a co I really liked this book on so many levels. This is a good author! He has written only 3 books and all are good. Published in 2011 and one of the most recent add ons to the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. All of his books have made the list. The setting is Brown University, three college friends who are graduating and going into their first post graduate year. It's a coming of age book as are all of the author's books. This book could be considered romance, a classic love triangle, a coming of age, a book about books/writing, a book about mental illness and a book about philosophy.

The girl, Madeleine Hanna, was not very appealing to me, in fact I thought her quite annoying. I liked Mitchell and not so much Leonard but the story soon becomes very engaging and the two guys rise to the top and Madeleine, well she pretty much stays the same for me.

This book was set in the 80s so that the characters were forced to communicate through writing and landlines but still late enough that feminism was established and not in its birth pains of the sixties and seventies. Mental health was fairly well described I thought. I do agree that the character would never have been on all the medications listed at one time but having worked in mental health from the eighties to the present, i can see the scenario; to the ER in crisis; shot of Haldol, shot of Ativan to calm the mania. Then committed and on to the state hospital and start Lithium but in the mean time to more quickly calm the mania, a short course of Thorazine (was FDA approved for bipolar) and then it should be removed. They used to try for really high, near toxic levels for control, now I think it is a little more toward therapeutic levels but as low as possible to avoid the not so fun side effects. Author did pretty good research I thought.

I listened to the audio read by David Pittu. He did a good job, I thought. At the end, there was an interview with author where he discussed the time period, research that he did, and I found it interesting.

I would recommend this book to just about anyone who enjoys a well written book. If you don't like a lot of literary name dropping, you might not like it, but Madeleine is an English literature major. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 17, 2013 Rebekah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-literature, genre-book-club, genre-contemporary, genre-novels, genre-adult, genre-adult-fiction, genre-literature-american, genre-romance, genre-literary-fiction, genre-mental-health-mental-illness

One of those books that you invest a lot of time in so you think they must be good and then you get to the end and think, "Dang, did I really just read that?" I mean, the writing style and characters must have had something going for them to make me want to continue reading. However, this really isn't a very interesting book. It's about three self-absorbed rich kids from Brown that don't really have any problems but think that they do. As an English major myself, at the start the depiction of En ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 20, 2016 Sara marked it as dnf

Shelves: 1001-books, audio, america, romance

Two months, three check outs, and still only eight hours into the audio. It is long past time to call it quits. I thoroughly enjoyed both of Eugendies other novels but this one just didn't work for me. Only one word came to mind as I was listening to this book, pretentious. In addition to this being a book about three students graduating from Brown who are capable of spending the next year finding themselves while they contemplate careers as Victorianists and theologians, it is also the story of ...more

Like · see review