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The Marriage Plot
The Marriage Plot
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
It’s the early 1980s. In American colleges, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels. As Madeleine studies the age-old m...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9781250014764
ISBN-10: 125001476X
Publication Date: 9/30/2012
Pages: 416
Rating:
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 25

3.3 stars, based on 25 ratings
Publisher: Picador
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Readnmachine avatar reviewed The Marriage Plot on + 1477 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Mechanically well-written but ultimately unsatisfying tale of a romantic triangle between an upper-class young woman fascinated by Victorian writers, an erratic biologist from the wrong side of the tracks, and a young man with a religious obsession. Ultimately, the reader can't invest in any of them and the whole story just sort of piddles off to an undetermined ending.
reviewed The Marriage Plot on + 65 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I was hoping that this book was going to be epic based on all the awards the author has won but it was a big disappointment. The author writes women like a man who has never met one. Some male authors just can't get a woman's voice correct and they shouldn't try. A long rambling read that leads you through the mind of weak, unsatisfied characters and the bad choices that they make
noisynora avatar reviewed The Marriage Plot on + 130 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I really wanted to like this book - I loved Middlesex! However, the myriad of references to literature were just too much for me and the story between the three main characters just dragged on too long for me to care. I gave up half way through.
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reviewed The Marriage Plot on + 174 more book reviews
"The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides was an interesting book to read, but it left me with a very unsatisfied feeling and I didn't like the characters all that much, feeling that some were very immature and made bad choices. I also think the book is very elitist.

Throwing in the section on English grammar and the theory of deconstruction was of interest to me, but there were a lot of things I had to look up in order to make sure I understood them. Since my degree isn't in English, I either had to ask my daughter whose degrees are in English or look things up, but I must say that I learned a thing or two.

I was a bit disappointed with it. Others may like it very much, but it depends on your taste in literary fiction.
reviewed The Marriage Plot on + 21 more book reviews
I was disapointed in this book after liking Middlesex so much.
reviewed The Marriage Plot on + 134 more book reviews
This book was fine and ultimately readable but it felt as though the action took place within a few weeks (although it didn't) and none of the characters really gained anything. Also, for a thread that disappeared shortly after the beginning of the book and was only resurrected on the final page, titling the book "The Marriage Plot" seems a bit of a stretch. Overall I was underwhelmed, especially after enjoying Middlesex.


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