But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined.
He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. With spare and shimmering prose that can strike with the shock of a shiv, Jones captures the life-altering losses Roy and Celestial endure in this unforgettable American marriage.Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. Roy’s father turns to mild subterfuge to help his son win Celestial back. Dre’s father warns him to leave another man’s wife alone - this from the man who abandoned Dre’s mother for another woman. Andre, ever-aware he is a secondary planet in Celestial’s orbit, notices that all the dolls look like Roy.Ĭelestial and Dre become lovers, and her disappointed father blames himself for treating her as a princess, shielding her from life’s setbacks. Celestial dresses a doll in prison blues as a political statement and lands an interview with Ebony, where she fails to mention her imprisoned husband. While Roy serves his time, Celestial sews life-size dolls - poupées, Roy called them, ever the marketing man. When Celestial locks him out, he notes, “A paperclip could best the catch, but when a woman shuts you out, picking the lock won’t let you back in.” Andre’s self-deprecating asides have the wisdom of Buddhist koans. Celestial and the imprisoned Roy exchange raw letters that pulse with anguish and yearning. Jones ( Silver Sparrow) alternates chapters among the three, and the reader’s sympathies shift with each new revelation. Apropos of her name, Celestial is the center of each man’s universe.
Celestial turns to her childhood best friend, Andre, when she argues with Roy. Yet Roy collects - and Celestial finds - phone numbers from other women. Roy and Celestial are smitten - really, they are, they tell themselves. Celestial is the artistic daughter of a scientist-inventor and his wife. Roy is an up-and-coming business executive in Atlanta, a Morehouse man from a working-class family who thinks he married up. Marriage uncovers the truths that are revealed in the nearly invisible cracks that emerge in relationships, and the devastating harm in secrets of omission.
Tayari Jones’ brilliant and heartbreaking novel An American Marriage (Algonquin, 306 pp., ★★★★ out of four) - announced Tuesday as the latest selection of Oprah's Book Club - exposes the intimate toll of an American shame: the unjust imprisonment of black men. Celestial and Roy are still newlyweds when a visit to Roy’s hometown in small-town Louisiana ends with Roy wrongly accused of rape.
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