The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
adult literature

I marvel at the construction of this novel. To be so knowledgeable about theology, deconstruction, semiotics and manic depression is one thing, but to be able to seamlessly incorporate such knowledge into a work of fiction complete with believable dialogue is quite a feat. Did I like this as much as Middlesex, Eugenides' Pulitzer Prize winning epic novel? No, I didn't. But I did like it and I chugged along, curious to find out what happened to these characters who were such a product of their time and the education they received at Brown University.

The story centers around three main characters, Madeleine, Leonard and Mitchell. The novel is written in the third person, but changes its focus from character to character in alternating chapters. It begins on graduation day at Brown in the early 1980s with Madeleine. It then meanders back through the college experience for all of the characters and eventually progresses, moving forward with the lives of the three characters the year after graduation. It is Madeleine's senior thesis which gives the novel its title. She writes about the idea of the marriage plot as framework for the Victorian novel. Leonard is a gifted student who suffers from manic depression and Mitchell, whose interest lies in theology, has been smitten with Madeleine since the day he met her. Sounds like a marriage plot waiting to happen. Indeed it is, but maybe not as the Victorians would have written it, however, immensely satisfying at the end nonetheless.