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Download PDF An American Marriage Oprah Book Club A Novel Tayari Jones Books

Product details Paperback 336 pages Publisher Algonquin Books; Reprint edition (February 5, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1616208686

An American Marriage Oprah Book Club A Novel Tayari Jones Books Reviews

• There are no spoilers in this review.
  
  This book was seriously so moving. Tayari created real people, people I feel like I know or went to church or school with and it's always a treat when an author writes a story so complex that you're not actually sure whose side you're supposed to be on. I wasn't going to review this book because I felt like it was going to get so many reviews that mine wouldn't matter, but I stumbled upon a one-star review for this book and the reviewer simply said "I can't connect to these characters. It was mostly letters."
  
  I don't know how many of y'all can relate to a black couple in America ripped apart by a flawed justice system, but I personally got teary eyed by the second letter (the first one written by Roy). I'm only 22. I've never been married. I'm not a doll maker. I am NOTHING like these characters. But you know what? I can relate to them. As I read this story, I got incredibly emotional because I thought to myself--this is within the realm of possibility for me in my reality. This could happen to me. That's why this story was so moving to me.
  
  To the reader who inspired me to write this review because they "couldn't relate" and therefore think that's a reason to one-star a beautifully written story like this, if I wanted to read books about myself, I'd just read through my old facebook statuses. Not being able to see yourself in the characters doesn't take away from the moving story being told. Often times publishing companies are wary about releasing books like Ms. Jones' because of readers like this, but for readers like me, stories like this stay with us for weeks long after we've read the last page.
  
  I am two months into 2018 and I feel l'm going to have a very hard time finding a book that has affected me as much as this one has. Also, to the person who likened this book to a Tyler Perry show--side eyeing you and how wrong that statement was.
• My book club read this book. I will say it is well written however, I am dismayed at how it portrayed 'an American marriage'. As an African American, I am embarrassed. I don't understand the high ratings. Marriage is about commitment, trust, love, compromise, growing and building a life together, oneness, and being there for each other when times get hard. All of this was missing from this book. Instead, there was secrets, selfishness, backstabbing, mistrust, lying, deceit, to name a few. If you like this type of thing, you will love this book.
  
  I could not relate to any of the main characters. I got so tired of Celestial and Andre, both of them got under my skin. Celestial is shallow, selfish, uncompromising, and she thinks the world revolves around her. I pegged her from the start, I knew she didn't love Roy. She will fall for any man who gives her special attention, i.e. Roy and her professor. How long will she stay with Andre? Andre pretended to be a "friend" to Roy but secretly wanted his wife. I felt sorry for Roy because of his situation but he should have seen through Celestial & Andre much sooner.
  I only finished this book because of the book club, it left me with negative feelings wondering if most people live this way. Sad to think.
  Many in my book club could not complete this book. I won't recommend this book to anyone because I didn't care for the subject matter.
• This book had beautiful writing in it. And that's all the good I can say about it.
  Basically, this is a book in which two people who were never well suited find themselves in a situation in which their ill suited relationship becomes (surprise!) more ill suited with time. And you, dear reader, get to sit through every miserable minute of their relationship crumbling to ruins.
  I should have known better than to read a book about a love triangle. I've read enough of them and I know that at least two people in the love triangle are heartless. I hated every single character in this book. They were all awful in their own ways. Roy was a possessive, macho jerk and Celestial seemed cold. Poor, spineless Andre. And the part where Roy comes home never seemed to end. Celestial and him had the same conversation three times. Three. And he asked Andre the same question six separate times and got the same exact answer every time and no resolution was ever reached. Listen, in real life, maybe you talk things out for a while, but I really, really don't want to read about it in excruciating detail. It's rare that I get to the end of a book and whisper, "Finally!"