First and foremost: An American Marriage is very deserving of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. So well constructed and full of character development.
⁣
An American Marriage follows husband and wife from Atlanta, Roy and Celestial after Roy is arrested while visiting his family in Louisiana.
⁣
I absolutely loved Celestial’s character and enjoyed following along as she went from being happily married to being the wife of a man wrongly incarcerated and what comes after. The inclusion of her family dynamics and relationship with her childhood friend, Andre, helped me become more interested her as a person. Plus I love any book that makes a woman an artist and entrepreneur. That still doesn’t happen much.
⁣
Enter Roy: wrongfully incarcerated in a different state from his wife. Leading to a tense and broken relationship. He meets his birth father while in prison and that changes his view on life (just a little bit). Once he’s released, he doesn’t know just what all he’s missed.
⁣
So why 4.5 stars and not 5? My only minor complaint, and it’s very much a personal opinion, is that I felt like the final chapter and the epilogue were just a little disjointed.
⁣