Saturday, May 26, 2018

An American Marriage

An American Marriage / Tayari Jones, 308 pgs.

Roy and Celestial are newlyweds and mostly on the same page but still fight quite a bit.  Roy is going down the path of a success in business and Celestial is becoming a respected artist.  They have only been married for a year when the unthinkable happens.  Roy is accused of a crime and ends up in prison.  Celestial knows he is innocent and the system is broken.  They are looking at twelve years apart.  This book follows their relationship as Roy begins serving time and Celestial is trying to get it together on her own.  Several years into his sentence, Celestial moves on and finds comfort with Andre, her childhood friend and literally the boy next door.  Andre originally introduced Roy and Celestial so he is also dealing with a lot of baggage.  After five years in the slammer, and two years after Celestial renounces their marriage (but never divorces him) Roy wins his appeal and is released.  Can Roy win Celestial back?  Can Andre keep her?  An interesting tale of how life can be unfair.  Although I'm inclined to point out the societal issue of falsely accusing a black man, the real story here is the interaction of the characters, major and minor and learning about their thoughts.

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