An American Marriage
An American Marriage was the pick for the first meeting of the book club I'm trying to get started in my neighborhood. I had never heard of it, and I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own, but the point of a book club is to expand your horizons. I ended up liking it, though I don't know that I'll actively seek out more like it in the future. Still, it sparked an interesting debate. And it was short enough to read in two days. The book is about a marriage that falls apart. Roy and Celestial have been married for just over a year and have just started trying to get pregnant when he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison for twelve years. He's released after five years, ready to pick up where he left off with Celestial, only to discover that she has moved on. I think the marriage would have failed even if Roy hadn't been sent to jail. He and Celestial have some serious communication problems in the beginning of the book, and he...