An American Marriage
Tayari Jones
2018, 320 pages
Fiction
Celestial has a bad feeling as she and her new husband, Roy Othaniel Hamilton, drive closer and closer to Roy’s hometown of Eloe, La., to visit his parents. She asks Roy to turn around, to drive them back to Atlanta, where they’ve settled as an up and coming couple, one an executive and one an artist, both on the brink of success and recognition. If only Roy had listened.
Flash forward five years later, when Roy is finally released from prison after being wrongfully accused of committing a heinous crime that took place in Eloe while he and Celestial were visiting.
Roy’s life and dreams have fallen apart while Celestial’s have blossomed and grown. Upon Roy’s release, the two are faced with finding out if they can pick up the pieces of the happy marriage that was devastatingly cut short to build a life together again when what each has to offer has become irreparably imbalanced.
An absolutely heartbreaking story of the breakdown of the raw love that is characteristic of newlyweds through an unnervingly too-real portrayal of a prejudiced and unrelenting legal system. An extremely difficult read that is worth every turn of the page.
Nicole Schulze Concord Public Library
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