"Marry Me" by John Updike - Book Review
Summary
"A deftly satirical portrait of life and love in a suburban town as only Updike can paint it.
Updike's eighth novel, subtitled "A Romance" because, he says, "People don't act like that any more," centers on the love affair of a married couple in the Connecticut of 1962. Unfortunately, this is a couple whose members are married to other people. Suburban infidelity is familiar territory by now, but nobody knows it as well as Updike, and the book is written with the author's characteristic poetic sensibility and sly wit."
Review
This book pleasantly surprised me. What makes it so enjoyable is the subtlety of the brilliant writing, which captures important truths in the mundane and profane world of affairs. This is my first book by John Updike, and it was a thrilling experience to travel to the moral zeitgeist of the 60s, particularly in relation to relationships, marital responsibilities, and parenting. The moral climate of that time feels almost alien today, which makes it enthralling, but sometimes incomprehensible. The interactions between the characters, and how controlled and impossibly understanding they are, but always on the edge of a breakdown with implicit verbal cruelty, make a somewhat uneventful story about human beings making hard choices very compelling. I still haven't decided if we are talking about mature adults, or characters looking for their souls through childish projections and facing the inevitability of accountability.
Key Takeaways
- Subtle writing with a brilliant exposition of human contradictions
- Sensitive, precise, and insightful prose
- A short and intriguing snapshot of the moral condition of a forlorn time
Who Should Read This
Readers looking for a short and compelling novel involving marital affairs and their consequences, and admirers of subtle and profound writing.
Favourite Quotes
"Jerry’s fault as a lover, his cruel fault, was that he acted like a husband. She had never had a husband before. It seemed to Sally now in the light of Jerry that she had been married ten years to a man who wanted only to be her lover, keeping between them the distance that lovers must cross."
"She wished Jerry would stop touching her; it damaged the illusion that they were married."
"`No. Not quite, I guess. Maybe our trouble is that we live in the twilight of the old morality, and there’s just enough to torment us, and not enough to hold us in.’"
"`He’s immature, but who isn’t?’"
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 stars)