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The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides - 3 stars - My Review

Literary novel about three twenty-somethings before, during, and just after graduating from Brown University in the 1980s. Madeleine is in love with Leonard, who suffers from bipolar disorder. Mitchell is in love with Madeleine. Madeleine views Mitchell purely as a friend. Madeleine is majoring in nineteenth century literature. Leonard is studying biology. Mitchell’s focus is on philosophy and religious studies.

The storyline follows the lives of these three main characters. The structure is unusual. It begins in the middle (at university) and then relates what happened to each character before and after. Madeleine’s section documents a privileged young woman who lacks direction. Leonard’s section provides the reader a glimpse of what it might be like to live with bipolar disorder. Mitchell’s section portrays a search for deeper meaning through travels and religion.

This book is all over the place. It contains lots of ingredients, probably too many – relationship dynamics, religion, mental health, sex, college life, career choices, intellectual sparring, finding oneself, and growing up. There are a few esoteric diversions into semiotics and the reproductive habits of yeast. Mother Theresa even makes an appearance.

It is purportedly a modern update to the nineteenth century novels (Jane Austen, Henry James) that contained a “marriage plot” where the goal for a woman of the time was to get married. But this theme is ignored through large portions of this novel. To me, it was more about the impact of mental illness on a relationship.

I had previously read Middlesex and loved it, so I had high expectations. This book is much less successful. I enjoyed the literary references but the updating of the “marriage plot” to today’s world did not quite work for me.