Despite having loved Middlesex
I resisted the urge to buy this book when I found it selling for 2.50£ at
Fopp. And well I did, since it appeared (untouched obviously, because why would
people open a book?) on the shelves of the loyal local farm for 2£ less*…
The Marriage Plot
is in so many ways one of the best campus novels ever: the confused characters,
their witty exchanges (possibly a bit too witty at times? I definitely wasn’t
that smart and quick back in the day), their frequent crises, their complex
relationships with their families – it’s all there. Then the characters leave
college (a Brown that at times is sneered upon by Eugenides himself, although
not as much as Lisa Simpson does), and sadly their lives become just a lot less
interesting. They seemed smart beyond their years in college, and when they
enter the real world they appear not only completely unprepared, which would
be fine and understandable, but also surprisingly dull and ordinary if compared
to their younger selves.
Or probably I have seen a few too many students with mental
breakdowns to be really shocked by the way in which the second half of the book
develops.
*Considering I am one of the last few avid readers left in the
world, I am quite aware of the fact that if everyone did what I do publishing
houses would close even more quickly. But what can I do? I do love a bargain.
And also, there are enough books that I still want to read to already last me a
lifetime anyway…
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