Book Review: An American Marriage

If you’re wondering what happened to last week’s blog post - I blame the novel An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. It was a summer goal of mine being that I am now out of school to fall back in love with reading. As a little girl I would flip through pages of a book in no time - it was my absolute favorite thing to do. Growing older with the added responsibilities of being an #adult and attending online school I can’t lie my attention span was SHOT.

I knew I wanted to get back into reading but I had no idea it would happen this fast haha. I began reading An American Marriage last Monday and I finished the book this past Sunday so not too shabby. This week I want to share my personal thoughts on the book and if you’ve read it feel free to join me in the comments to talk! Towards the end of the blog, you’ll also find some discussion questions the author provided and my answers, enjoy!

My Thoughts

This book was beautifully written, it told a powerful story of what true love is and basically isn’t. I must admit that it has altered my idea of what marriage should be (in a good way), it made me question a lot about my own perspective of what that union should look like and operate as.

Overall, it was a very fast read and I found myself up until 2 am some nights reading and not being able to put the book down (I secretly love the feeling haha). On top of that I was snuggled up in the most comfy-iest pants ever, you can find them here. I also had to set the mood and burn a candle as well :)

Discussion Questions

The title of this novel is An American Marriage. Do you feel this title accurately represents the novel? Why or why not? And if you do find the title appropriate, what about the story makes it particularly “American”?

I don’t feel like the title represents the actual story, I feel like it could have been a bit more specific to properly identify in what truly occurs within our community and the injustices we face. I feel as though at first glance people are going to automatically think of a white picket fence and this is a far cry from that american fairy tale.

Big Roy explains that he and Olive never had children of their own because Olive feared he would not love Roy as much if he had his “own” children. Do you feel she had the authority to make that decision? And do you feel she was right in making that decision.

In my mind Big Roy was such a sweet and loving husband, I feel as though he loved Olived so much that Roy was completely of his flesh and blood. I don’t think he would have loved him any less - if anything he would want Roy to be a big brother. As a woman and wife I would assume that you do have a certain say so within your marriage and if you have such strong feelings on such a heavy topic your partner will value your stance. I don’t think anyone should feel bad making a decision that concerns their children and most importantly her body.