For the past few months, I’ve been following up a read with its audio counterpart. I can’t do this for every book but when I do, I am always amazed at how it comes across on audio. Most times, I find the audio version to be good, if not better than the reading experience but that often has to do with the reader or the pacing of the book, etc. I find this practice particularly useful if a book went over my head.

Now in the case of The Marriage Plot, I loved it. Although the pace was a bit slow here and there, I appreciated the themes and how Eugenides handled his characters. You can read my review of the book here. That said, I am thinking that maybe the audio version would be even better.

Check out this clip provided by Macmillan Audio. Doesn’t it sound good?

Have you listened to the audio version? Did you like it?

Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

After being out of the reading world for what seems like forever, but in reality has only been ten days, I feel the need to push myself to get back into the rhythm of reading. It’s like that little known muscle you have in the back of your leg that you suddenly notice after falling down a million times when skiing.  Well, that happens when “I” ski, anyway. I was reading during the show, but they were all DNF’s (did not finish) and instead of calling them out as such, I am just going to chalk it up to me and my scattered brain. If I can’t concentrate on the book in front of me, I’d rather not read. So in between the show, I watched The Big Bang Theory and The Wonder Years. Comfort viewing if you ask me.

However, I began to get the reading itch again this past Monday. Much like starting a fitness routine, I am easing my way into reading again and it feels good. I have been reading Then Again by Diane Keaton and The Technologists by Matthew Pearl. One is a memoir and the other has to do with the introduction of technology as a science in 1868. Both are fascinating and just what I need to get back on the horse, so to speak.

Now that I have those two in full swing, I plan to add my book club pick to the mix which happens to be my pick from last year, The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds. It is about famed nature poet John Clare’s stay in a mental institution. It’s fiction, but it sounds wonderful.

So that is what I am doing right now. Limping along, building up the muscles that atrophied during the week of the show. I can almost hear the theme from Rocky in the background. Almost.

You saw The Boy as a statue the other day. I was unable to take photos of The Girl before because she was in rare, dramatic form and had many meltdowns but during the last show, she was in good spirits.

I’m not sure what happened those other days but I think it may have had to do with the slight fever she was running. There was nothing wrong with her, that I could tell and she is fine today but those couple of degrees made her CRANKY and caused her to miss an entire number. Oh well, it’s over now and looking at the little Oyster (she sort of looks like a painter to me), you’d never know that anything was amiss.

In this shot, she is a Girly Bug. It’s a bit out of focus because I had like, two seconds to grab the shot before she had to change again.

And last but certainly not least… the end of the show where she got to hug the Queen who was played by a very talented young lady and she was ever so gracious to take photos with the little ones.

The show is over and things are beginning to return to normal. Registration for the next show (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) begins this week and rehearsals begin at the end of this month. No rest for the weary! At this point, I think only The Boy will be doing that one. Not sure yet, and in the middle of all of this we have to schedule oral surgery for The Boy. It will be interesting trying to schedule that around auditions. You can’t sing with your gums all sewn up.

Anyway, give me a week to catch-up with all of my reading and I will be back to business as usual. The business being reading which I had no time at all to do.

Production week is almost over for Alice in Wonderland. My kids are holding up okay for the most part but there have been some mild meltdowns for The Girl and some “feedback” (my name for it) from The Boy.

For one, I had no idea how attached The Girl was to me. I am working backstage during the show, but she spent much of the dress rehearsal looking for me. Many of the stage moms said that she welled-up in tears more than once when she couldn’t see me. I’m working props so I spend my time running around, making sure that the performers have what they need. It’s fun to swoop in and save the day, but The Girl was not having any of it last night.

Then, there’s The Boy. He is playing a Roman Statue…the one that helps Alice choose the door to adventure. He’s the one on the right in the above photo. He’s a super-fun kid but when he is hungry or tired, man…he can be difficult. Yesterday, I left work early to make sure that the kids were dressed and fed and ready to go by showtime, but on the car ride over, The Boy said he didn’t eat anything. What? He makes his own stuff because he is so picky but I told him to eat… saw him grab something even, but did he eat? No! At that point it was too late to get him anything so he had nothing to eat from noon to well, nearly midnight. Not a good thing.

Because of the long night, he spent the entire morning texting me, telling me how tired he was… how hungry he was, etc. Finally, The Hub had to go get him from school. He is sleeping now. His poor Sis, only eight, seemed to handle it better. I will be leaving to get her soon so she can take a quick nap as tonight is the first show and I don’t want any meltdowns.

Next week, my life will be more normal and will include (wait for it) READING. Yes, that thing I love so much. Hope you are all well and that your lives are more relaxed than mine.

The Marriage Plot
By Jeffrey Eugenides
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Hardcover, 9780374203054, October 2011, 416pp.)

The Short of It:

Angst-ridden smart folks trying to figure it out.

The Rest of It:

The Marriage Plot is this big, bold forray into what it’s like to be young with options. Madeleine, Leonard and Mitchell are all graduating from Brown. It’s the early 80′s and their lives are just beginning to swing into the unknown. Madeleine, an English major, knows that grad school is in her future, but now that she’s fallen in love with Leonard, who has his own baggage in the form of manic-depression, she’s trying to fit it all in and find a balance.

Mitchell, who never truly connected with Madeleine, has it in his head that she’s the mate for him and is a tiny bit obsessed with her. He is always on the outside, looking in and can’t understand Madeleine’s desire to be with Leonard. As Madeleine follows Leonard to Cape Cod for an internship, Mitchell travels around the world to pursue his interest in religion, but more importantly, to get Maddie out of his head.

Although the story plods along at an incredibly slow pace, I couldn’t help but get swept up in the “bigness” of it. I was in college in the late 80′s and Eugenides nailed 80′s college life and I mean, NAILED it. You’ve got your academic life taking up most of your time but then… then there is this other half of you that is going out and meeting people. Often, one person turns out to be more than a friend and then all of sudden life shifts and you are thinking of marriage and the white picket fence. Maybe.

The Marriage Plot is all about that time. That time where you feel as if you have all these options, yet have no idea where you’ll really end up. It’s about figuring out what you really want and realizing that the decisions you make today, could affect you for the rest of your life. As Madeleine studies romances of the past, she realizes that history does not have to repeat itself.

I love angst and there is plenty of it contained within these pages to last you a lifetime. Did I love the characters? No. I often found myself frustrated by their inability to take things in, but were they real to me? Most definitely. Leonard, who suffers manic-depression throughout the novel was probably my favorite of the characters because he was so flawed yet there were times where he was completely lucid. During these times, I saw his brilliance and how a girl like Maddie could fall in love with him.

Overall, this is not a book that will wow you with its plot. It’s not a page-turner but instead a quiet, introspective look at relationships and if you are a book lover (who isn’t?) then you will love this book for the bookish references peppered throughout the story. I had an easy time picking this one up and putting it down. It’s the type of book you can easily dip in and out of but every time I put it down, I found myself thinking about my own college years.

Note from Ti: This book is very different from Middlesex so you really can’t compare the two. If you go into this one hoping for another Middlesex then you’ll be disappointed.

Source: Borrowed
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