Memories of a Marriage; Louis Begley
Nan Talese - 2013
Memories of a Marriage is narrated by Philip, a novelist
who has recently lost the love of his life to cancer. Now in his golden years,
somewhere around the age of 70, fond memories of Bella and also his young
daughter who died help him through the rough times. Philip and Bella did
everything together, they traveled extensively and even shared office space (Bella was also a writer).
One day while Philip was attending the ballet, he runs into Lucy De
Bourgh, a Rhode Island heiress that Philip knew from his post grad school days
in Paris, and a woman who he and many others had a one-night stand with. Lucy was a trust fund baby and a
woman with quite the reputation back then. She married Thomas Snow, whose
family was beneath her social status and breeding. Snow’s father was a Newport,
RI garage repair owner and his
wife a bookkeeper.
Despite this, Thomas made it big - he graduated from Harvard and had a successful career as an
international investment banker and economist. Lucy and Thomas divorced, and although Thomas
remarried, he has since passed on.
Lucy
and Philip begin talking after the ballet and Lucy begins speaking negatively
about her former husband and their marriage, referring to him as a "monster". Philip is shocked and curious
about how he could have had such a different impression of what their life together
was like. As the two begin seeing one another, Philip becomes more and more
obsessed about finding out more about the couple he thought he knew. Each time
they meet the bitter Lucy adds a new piece to the puzzle. Philip begins to speak with old friends and
family who knew the couple to find out more. He even learns that Thomas’s
second wife, Jane, had a totally different opinion of Thomas and of their life together.
This
was a very different story from anything I’ve read recently. Lucy is an unlikable character to the
extreme. The pace is slow, the dialogue is long, yet somehow it seemed to
work. The slow pace worked, older people
reflecting on their memories of life and love. Just under 200 pages, there is
no real action in the story, but it leaves you with much to think about. [Only
the couple in the marriage knows what it’s really like.] It makes you think
about the choices we’ve made and how we react when we realize our marriage is less than
ideal. Do we leave the relationship, stay together, grow bitter or do we accept
the fact that no one is perfect and remain together making the best of it.
4/5
stars
(eGalley)
I totally agree that nobody really knows what a couple is like except the couple, and even they don't always truly know each other!
ReplyDeleteI also agree that no one knows what goes on in a marriage other than the couple themselves.
ReplyDeleteSounds good and very thought provoking.
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued...I do know how much different a marriage looks from the outside than it does to the insiders...and even the insiders have their own take on it. Sounds tempting!
ReplyDeleteDiane, this book does sound interesting and revealing about the theme of marriage. It sounds as if a lot "goes on" in a short book.
ReplyDeleteI like character driven-novels but I'm not sure about this one, although if you say that the slow pace works, and you liked it despite the dislikable Lucy, it might be worth a shot.
ReplyDeleteThat is thought provoking...I'm always fascinated by marriage dynamics. And at 200 pages I'm not sure the lack of action would bother me too much.
ReplyDelete