The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot

Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reviewer: Lydia

Jeffrey Eugenides, author of critically acclaimed books such as The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex, has done it again by creating another novel that has been on nearly every Top Ten reading list. Set in the early 1980s, the novel follows three students as they graduate from college and their specialized majors and attempt to journey out into the “real” world.

At the heart of the story is Madeleine Hanna, a lovelorn English major who wrote her senior thesis on the notion of marriage plots in literature. At the same time she is (ironically) dealing with a nasty breakup and the rekindling of an old friendship with another man. In the end, this novel is a love story at heart, asking whether this idea can truly exist anymore. As the book jacket summary says, “Are the great love stories of the nineteenth century dead? Or can there be a new story, written for today?” The book is a charming read, and I although I haven’t read anything else by this author, I enjoyed the humor and wit of the characters. Being an English major myself, I appreciated most of the obscure references to authors, literary theorists, and stylistic movements, since I don’t encounter many of them outside the classroom. This also shows how this literary novel pokes fun at itself and its own literary-ness. However, this might be off-putting to some, as there are a lot of these name-dropping moments. Furthermore, the shift between character’s points of view grew confusing at times, but this did not detract majorly from the book. The Marriage Plot is a good introduction to an author that has been, and will continue to be, pivotal in the American literary scene.