Book Chatter

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
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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