The letters Roy and Celestial exchange initially continue to display a genuine warmth, concern, even a kind of marital sparring and playfulness. He is incarcerated under a false charge, facing up to twelve years in prison, paying over and over for a crime he has never committed.Īnd in those years, this “American marriage” that the title hints at begins to morph and fray and disintegrate. Roy is taken into custody, and the spark of his bright future is crushed just as it was lit briefly aflame. Even though Roy has been sleeping next to Celestial the entire night, an elderly lady accuses him of raping her in the early hours. But the duo seems to be bound by loyalty, rising over parental disapproval and snide remarks as one entity.Īnd then, disaster strikes. Minor tiffs erupt over money and career jealousy raises its head with a couple of Roy’s indiscretions. Sure, Roy hasn’t told his wife the truth of his adoptive father, and Celestial is yet to confess her own secrets to her charming husband. Roy and Celestial are a young couple looking forward to great things in life, married for just over a year. When two people get married it’s expected that they ride the highs and weather the lows together, hold the partner steady when they falter, and wait for them when they get left behind.īut how much, really, can one human being support another? Can the mere institution of marriage, even one nurtured with great care and sacrifice, bear the crushing burdens of fate? Are goodwill and grand gestures enough to tide over harsh times? Can someone give to the extent of making oneself empty? In her fourth novel ‘An American Marriage’, Tayari Jones ponders over these intriguing aspects of the utterly social construct of marriage, and the biological undercurrents of love. Most, if not all, marriages are sealed with a clause-some legal, other times merely social or religious-of being together “for better, for worse.” Often, till death (or divorce) do them part.

An american marriage author