Amateur Marriage, The

Southern Living Selects The Amateur Marriage BY ANNE TYLER (ALFRED A. KNOPF, $24.95)

The setting of this author's latest novel takes place in Baltimore, beginning during the fevered early days of World War II. I wanted the ending to be like the famous 1940s photograph of the sailor kissing the young woman in the street-romantic, celebratory, and victorious. Instead, this story could be a six-part series on Dr. Phil's talk show, highlighting unrealistic expectations we often put on others, lack of communication, and general dysfunction.

The Amateur Marriage follows the lives of husband and wife Michael and Pauline Anton. Their relationship began swiftly, as so many did and still do during the uncertainty and angst of wartime. Married for 30 years, this couple was mismatched from the beginning. Though this troubling fact could result in a hopelessly dark book, Anne Tyler's thoughtful prose helps the story escape that fate.

Instead, this tome of connubial unbliss becomes a salute to the ability of people to accept, let go, forgive, and move forward. It also describes what goes wrong in couples' lives and how hurt accumulates over time. Anne Tyler is, as always, anything but an amateur in her examination of the human heart. -WANDA MCKINNEY

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Mar 2004
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