Book Review: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

An American Marriage – Tayari Jones

3/5 Stars 

I was excited to finally have my turn with this book from the library. It has a lot of hype – especially since it’s an Oprah Book Club choice – and I was looking forward to reading it. As many have said, it was a fairly quick read.

This is the story of an African American man, Roy, who is wrongfully convicted. He is put in prison for 12 years and is released early (This is all from the front flap, I’m not spoiling,

promise!) It is told from the perspective of Roy, his wife, Celestial and Andre their best friend. It is the tale of a marriage through the strain of incarceration.

Let me say first, the writing was wonderful. There are so many phrases that capture humanity so well.

“But home isn’t where you land; home is where you launch. You can’t pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.”

I mean, how great is that?

The first part of the book is written in the form of letters between Roy and Celestial while he is in prison. It’s done very well and without dates on the letters, so as a reader you get to focus more on content than timeline (no need to flip back and forth).

Jones brings up so many perspectives to life in the south in African American culture and the effects of incarceration on African American families. It raised so many questions that I have never had to consider as a white woman in the US which I thoroughly appreciated.

That being said, I do not understand the hype of this book. As wonderful as the writing was, I felt that the plot fell flat. There is so much great description of each characters thoughts and approaches and then the actions they take don’t add up. There were also some tenets to the story that were surprising but also quite unrealistic (the character of Walter, for instance).

I probably wouldn’t recommend it, and I hate to say that because I LOVE recommending books. Oprah has chosen this as her book club book and this is just another reason that I differ from Oprah.

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