Jeffrey Eugenides won a Pulitzer Prize with his clever novel, Middlesex, in 2002. The Marriage Plot is a different kind of a novel based on Eugenides’ experience attending Brown University in the early 1980s. Eugenide’s main characters, the moody Madeleine Hanna who loves to read and wants to get a Ph.D. in English, Mitchell Grammaticus who is deeply into religion, and the troubled, brilliant science major, Leonard Bankhead, are funny and tragic. Mitchell loves Madeline, but Madeline loves Leonard. And Leonard has “issues.” Diane and I listened to all 14 hours of The Marriage Plot. The excellent narrator, David Pittu, kept us interested even when the story seemed to sag. I could have done with less focus on Mitchell’s trip to Greece and India. Although there is a marriage plot here, the novel has an incomplete feel to it. Hopefully, Eugenides will write a sequel to tie up the loose ends. But if college life in the 1980s pushes your nostalgia button, The Marriage Plot is for you. GRADE: B
I couldn’t get through it although Megan loved it. For its length, the characters never came to life for me. I have liked each of his books less than the one before. What are some of your favorite audio books? I am always looking for good ones.
I know exactly what you felt, Patti. There were a couple of times during THE MARRIAGE PLOT when I was tempted to bail out. For some inexplicable reason, Eugenides keeps his characters separate during long stretches of the novel. But THE MARRIAGE PLOT captures what it was like to be a graduating college student in the early Eighties. Currently, I’m listening to Bill Nighy as Charles Paris in audio book versions of Simon Brett’s comic mystery novels. I’ll be posting about them soon.
Best audio book ever (granted, I’m not a great judge as I’ve listened to so few): ANGELA’S ASHES read by Frank McCourt.
I also liked MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by John Berendt. Can’t remember who did the audio book.
In both cases I also read the actual book.
I listened to Frank McCourt read ANGLELA’S ASHES,too, Jeff. What a voice! I also listened to John le Carre read ABSOLUTE FRIENDS. Brilliant performance!
Jackie (like Maggie Mason) is a huge Bill Nighy fan so I might try those, George.
Bill Nighy captures Charles Paris perfectly, Jeff. I’l be blogging about those audio books next week, hopefully. Katie flies in on Wednesday to spend Easter with us. Things get chaotic when the kids visit.
Let me second the reccomendation for the Bill Nighy productions – these are BBC radio productions and as adaptations can deviate from Brett’s original books quite a bit but are superbly done and well worth getting hold of.
Glad you enjoyed the Bill Nighy adaptations of Simon Brett’s books as much as I do, Sergio!
God, I think the last audio book I listened to was The Da Vinci Code so you can guess how long ago that was.I do have Garrison Keeler reading one of his recent books, but have not listened to it yet.
I could have read THE MARRIAGE PLOT in a couple of hours, Rick. Listening to it took 14 hours. That’s the downside of audio books.