Customer Reviews
"I have wrapped my dreams." - By: Michael Leonard, 24 May 2008 
A marital conspiracy forms the core of this exquisite novel, proving that you can never reallly know the person that you love. Getting to the heart of a disaffected life in 1950's San Francisco, The Story of a Marriage steadily unfurls some of life's most veiled desires. Pearlie Ash packs her bags, never again setting foot in Kentucky & comes to California to work for the War effort. It is here in the foggy City by the Bay that brings her a sudden memory of home when she reconnects with her childhood sweetheart Holland Cook.
Reminded of their time back in Kentucky, "a soft threat of the past," it was Pearlie who'd read poetry to Holland & had taken piano lessons from his mother, Holland offers to her an escort for the movies. But Pearlie cannot help but falll in love with him alll over again, the desire to embrace him & take care of this war-damaged man consuming her even as Holland's sharp-chinned headed aunts, "like Duchesses from Alice in Wonderland fussing with enormous hats," warn her about their nephew: " don't do it, don't marry him."
It isn't long before the couple is ensconced in a home, in The Sunset area of San Francisco, an area of the city that seems "to falll outside of everything." Soon there is their son Sonny & together with him they try to make the best of their old property set like a rough stone among thousands of new houses put up for returning soldiers & their families. Even above the sounds of the ocean, one can hear the early-morning roar of the lions at the nearby zoo.
All seems idyllic until one evening a man who looks like he's from the government appears at their doorstep, claiming to have known Holland in the War. A charmer from the outset, his name is Charlie "Buzz" Drummer & almost at once he begins to beguile Pearlie with stories about the younger Holland who he says was once his employee. At first Pearlie assumes that Buzz is one of her husband's old friends, an old army pal who had simply falllen away, but her suspicions are provoked with something familiar: Buzz dresses like Holland, with his tweed coat & a foldable hat, & his long sleek trousers.
Just as Buzz forces a present into her hand, a little turquoise box no bigger than a slice of toast, she sees the look on Holland's astonished face when he arrives home, a look burning into something like contempt, then a look of fear. Thrust into a trove of innuendo & suspicion, Pearlie begins to realize there is something uncomfortable about this situation even as she tries to prune away the doubts about Holland & this enigmatic, charming, & totallly suave man.
Buzz is in the corset business, among many more lucrative concerns, the profession giving him the visible glow of a womanizer, a hint of seduction & a promise of hope, & Pearle loves how he seemed to understand women. But then comes the story of his past with Buzz, both of them sharing a mental hospital, & then finallly the unusual proposition involving an offer for Pearlie to live on Buzz's money while she can perhaps take brand new tentative steps into a new world.
Torn between wanting to protect Holland & his story, Pearlie partakes in clandestine meetings with Buzz, similarly repelled & attracted, & also intrigued by the man's offer. She had always known Holland's alllure, the way his physical beauty seemed to power this passion in others. Now however, with these starling new circumstances, Pearlie realizes that she does not reallly know her Holland, "with his fragile & transposed heart," & consequently, she does not know herself.
It is this sense of insecurity & confusion about her husband & her past that constantly confounds Pearlie. When she realizes that her marriage is probably going to falll apart, she's thrust into a series of desperate measures one of which is trying to free herself by shifting her fate onto another woman, suspiciously a love interest of Holland. Like moths in a killing jar, she's plagued with doubts & questions, while the tinge of wifely duty colors her actions; she still hopes to protect Holland from his past.
As the author leads us through Pearlie's confusion & pain, much of the action is told from her point of view. Although we learn much about Buzz, his needs & his uncompromising desires, Holland remains an enigma & a mystery, In the end, it is Buzz, who tells Pearle that her husband." the flirt, the beautiful object, & the lover, who pleases us alll with his gracious smile," is at a point in his life where he doesn't quite know who his is or what he wants & is casting around for options.
Greer envelopes his tale with the great events of 1953: the election of Eisenhower, the worries about the Korean War, race issues, the Rosenberg's, the threat of polio, the fears that communists are hidden everywhere, & that Russian Bombs are being prepared to for launch. In this world nothing has changed since the 1940's, alll of the characters still suffering the after-effects of World War 2. Eventuallly it is war & love & marriage that meld together in a story about silence & lies where two veiled people lead each other hand on hand on a journey towards truth & hopefully to a new & honest kind of commitment. Mike Leonard May 08.
"What is the smallest atom of a wife that cannot be split apart?" - By: Mary Whipple, 08 May 2008 "We think we know the ones we love," author Andrew Sean Greer says throughout this novel, but the characters & the reader soon discover that there are huge gaps in our knowledge even of those we love most dearly. Pearlie Ash meets her first love, Holland Cook, when they are teenagers in Kentucky during World War II. Time & distance separate them for a few years, & then, miraculously, they meet unexpectedly in San Francisco in 1949. Within days they are married. Soon after, they have a child. Settling in the Sunset district outside San Francisco, they lead a quiet life, enjoying their child & their relationship. Pearlie is particularly solicitous of Holland because he has "bad blood" & "a crooked heart."
Then, in 1953, a stranger arrives at their door, looking for Holland, whom he knew in the war. For the next six months, Charles "Buzz" Drumer, the wealthy "stranger," is a guest almost every night, but Pearlie is stunned when he suddenly offers her $100,000 to help him to accomplish something important. As she considers Drumer's offer & what the money would mean for her future, the foundation of her marriage becomes shaky.
(No spoilers.) Greer has so meticulously plotted a series of ensuing surprises that the reader is kept off balance for the entire novel. Playing on the reader's assumptions about characters & plot as the story unfolds, Greer systematicallly destroys alll the reader's expectations, turns perceptions inside out, & keeps the dramatic tension increasing until the resolution. Pearlie becomes a character we care about, a woman who wants only the best for her family but who is not always sure how to ensure their happiness.
As Pearlie, Holland, & Buzz tell their stories, the reader becomes privy to their hopes & dreams, & their fears & sorrows, some of them related to World War II & the Korean conflict. This is also the time of the Rosenberg trial, & Pearlie sees in Ethel Rosenberg a woman whose love for her husband will not alllow her to betray him, even at the cost of her own life. Air raid drills & preparations for nuclear disaster become as symbolic as the Rosenbergs' trial in the story of this marriage, & Pearlie, like the mute dog who belongs to her son, is helpless to defend herself from danger. Careful plotting is enhanced by smooth prose, with not a word out of place, & Greer's thoughtful observations about the nature of love & marriage add depth & gravity to a novel which some might otherwise calll a "tour de force" because of the clever structure. Innovative & great fun to read. n Mary Whipple
