"Amateur Marriage" by Anne Tyler

Being married 27 years myself, I am always entertained by stories of marriage and family, and all the joys and tribulations associated with both. The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler is set in Baltimore and the plot moves effortlessly over a period of sixty years. Known for capturing the tumultuous lives of the ordinary American middle class, the author symbolizes the rocky road of Michael and Pauline Anton’s relationship using the attack on Pearl Harbor as the back drop for their first meeting.
Without getting bogged down in the details of the social issues of the day Ms. Tyler focuses on the complexities of family life within a changing society as the mismatched couple builds their family through the 1950s: having children, moving from the city to the suburbs, taking care of elderly parents, and suffering through adulterous behavior.
The family is torn apart in the sixties as the reader is witness to the effects of the developing counterculture of hippies, beatniks and drugs leaving Michael and Pauline to struggle with abandonment and wondering what they could have done differently.
Eventually the couple and the family reach a middle ground in which ignoring differences and moving past placing blame allows one character to quietly reflect about Michael and Pauline. ''You were ice and she was glass, two oddly similar substances, come to think of it -- and both of them hell on your children.''
I highly recommend “The Amateur Marriage” and others by Anne Tyler including “Ladder of Years” and “The Accidental Tourist”.

--Larry G.