The Amateur Marriage

infobox Book |
name = The Amateur Marriage
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Paperback edition
author = Anne Tyler
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Alferd A. Knopf
release_date = 2004
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 320 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 1400042070
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Amateur Marriage", published in 2004, is American author Anne Tyler's sixteenth novel.

Plot summary

The plot concerns the marriage of Michael Anton and Pauline Barclay, who meet when he tends to her bloodied brow in his family's grocery store, located in a primarily Eastern European conclave in Baltimore, in December 1941. They marry after Michael is discharged from the Army with a permanent injury caused by a deliberate shot from someone he assaulted.

Michael and Pauline settle in a small apartment above the store, but their widely different temperaments and expectations quickly create dissension in the relationship. He is repressed, controlling, and quiet; she is loud, emotional, and romantic. At Pauline's insistence, they move to the suburbs, where they raise three children: George, Karen and Lindy.

Lindy runs away to San Francisco in 1960 and becomes involved in the growing drug culture. Eight years later, her parents retrieve Pagan, their three-year-old grandchild, while Lindy detoxes in a rehab community. The slowly-crumbling marriage finally dissolves when Michael leaves Pauline on their 30th anniversary. For Michael, convinced that he and Pauline didn't have the faintest idea what they were doing when they married or how to conduct a marriage (that they were "amateurs"), divorce is a salvation. For Pauline, it's a tragedy that leaves her in despair.

External links

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02E2DE1E3EF932A25752C0A9629C8B63 New York Times review]