The Amateur Marriage: A NovelKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2004 M10 26 - 320 pages NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning author—a rich and compelling novel about a mismatched marriage and its consequences, spanning three generations They seemed like the perfect couple—young, good-looking, made for each other. The moment Pauline, a stranger to the Polish Eastern Avenue neighborhood of Baltimore (though she lived only twenty minutes away), walked into his mother’s grocery store, Michael was smitten. And in the heat of World War II fervor, they are propelled into a hasty wedding. But they never should have married. Pauline, impulsive, impractical, tumbles hit-or-miss through life; Michael, plodding, cautious, judgmental, proceeds deliberately. While other young marrieds, equally ignorant at the start, seemed to grow more seasoned, Pauline and Michael remain amateurs. In time their foolish quarrels take their toll. Even when they find themselves, almost thirty years later, loving, instant parents to a little grandson named Pagan, whom they rescue from Haight-Ashbury, they still cannot bridge their deep-rooted differences. Flighty Pauline clings to the notion that the rifts can always be patched. To the unyielding Michael, they become unbearable. From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counterculture jargon of the sixties, from the miniskirts to the multilayered apparel of later years, Anne Tyler captures the evocative nuances of everyday life during these decades with such telling precision that every page brings smiles of recognition. Throughout, as each of the competing voices bears witness, we are drawn ever more fully into the complex entanglements of family life in this wise, embracing, and deeply perceptive novel. |
Contents
Common Knowledge | 3 |
Dandelion Clock | 35 |
The Anxiety Committee | 58 |
Whispering Hope | 98 |
Heidis Grandfather | 123 |
Killing the Frog by Degrees | 170 |
The World Wont End | 202 |
A Cooler Spot on the Pillow | 243 |
Longtime Child | 271 |
IO The Man Who Was a Dessert | 295 |
A Conversation with Anne Tyler | 309 |
Reading Group Questions and Topics | 315 |
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Common terms and phrases
Accidental Tourist Alex Amateur Marriage Anna Anna Stuart Anna's Anne Tyler anyhow baby bedroom Brunek called coleslaw counter daughter Deanna Durbin door dress Eustace eyes face Falls Road father feel felt fingers Fleet Street friends front gave gazed George girl glance gone Grandma grocery guess hair hand head heard JoJo Karen Katie kitchen knew laugh Lindy Lindy's living looked married Married couples meat loaf Michael and Pauline morning Mother Anton moved muumuu never nice night okay once Pagan parents Pauline asked Pauline told Pauline's remember Sally seemed she'd sister Sherry sitting sleep smell smile sorry sound started stayed stood stopped street strip steak sure talking tell thanks things thought took turned voice waiting walked Wanda watched wearing window woman women wore young