Book 11: The Amateur Marriage, by Anne Tyler

As it happens, this novel felt like an appropriate read after Heir to the Glimmering World. The books aren't particularly similar (other than sharing, briefly, a similar setting and era), but both are completely character-driven novels with fascinating people who populate them.

In The Amateur Marriage, Tyler presents us with the story of the marriage of Michael and Pauline Anton. It chronicles the very beginning of their courtship, when the couple meets just as a parade for soldiers heading off to World War II breaks out, through decades of turbulence and tribulation. For you see, Michael and Pauline are not quite happy. Polar opposites in almost every way, they haven't been married more than a couple of years before they each begin to wonder individually whether their match isn't a terrible mistake. Like many marriages of people from the same time frame, they try to find common ground to keep things working - their children, a grandson whom they adopt, and a home they both love. It's a very realistic, straightforward portrayal of a life that could be that of someone you know - an uncle and aunt, perhaps, or a next-door neighbor. While the subject matter sounds somewhat dull and unlikely to be memorable, the book is really difficult to put down, almost begging the reader to sit and read the whole thing straight through.