What We're Reading: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

“Atlanta is where I learned the rules and learned them quick. No one ever called me stupid. 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.” --Roy Othaniel Hamilton Jr in An American Marriage 

Roy and his wife Celestial are a young, attractive, highly-educated African American couple on the way to living their dreams in Atlanta-- he as a rising executive and she as a folk artist dollmaker.  Then they find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time, and Roy is arrested and convicted of rape, shattering their world.  What will their marriage become after Roy’s incarceration, and can it possibly survive? 

This book was read by Susan Baker, Main Campus Librarian. 

Title: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Genre: Realistic, contemporary fiction

Reading Great Things 2021 Challenge Categories: A book recommended by Durham Tech Library staff, A book About social justice or equity, A book about family

This book was read by Susan Baker, Main Campus Librarian. 

Why did you choose to read this book?

I heard about this book listening to librarian Courtney Bippley's Out Loud in the Library podcast featuring an interview with the author Tayari Jones (if you haven’t heard it, stop what you’re doing and listen now!).  I was immediately engaged by the author and wanted to hear her stories, so I went looking for her work. 

 An American Marriage was an Oprah’s Book Club Pick in 2018, so it’s gotten a lot of buzz.  As a bonus, it’s available as an e-book via our Dogwood Digital library collection.  Yep, I’m in!

What did you like about it?

For me, this was a compelling story because the reader enters so deeply into the minds and hearts of the narrators.  Tayari Jones skillfully shifts points of view between Roy and Celestial, using the first-person narration from letters they send each other while Roy is in prison, later moving to their firsthand accounts, and adding in a third narrator—Andre, a childhood friend of Celestial’s and a college friend of Roy’s, who has always loved Celestial.   This was in no way a suspenseful courtroom drama a la John Grisham—it is completely clear from the beginning that Roy was innocent, and his conviction is presented in a very straightforward, as the way things can happen. 

This is certainly a story that highlights racism and injustice, but the heart of the story centers on intimacy-- relationships between the characters—who they were and are, what they mean to each other and what they owe each other.  No spoilers—just a promise that this is a story that grabs your heart as it opens your eyes. 

Did it remind you of anything else?

If Toni Morrison’s works speak to you, if having African American voices fitting hard truths into language of feeling and poetry and connection sounds like a story that could speak to your mind and heart, then you just might want to spend some time with An American Marriage and other works by Tayari Jones. 

Because Roy and Celestial meet at Spelman College in Atlanta, also the alma mater of Tayari Jones, I'd pair this book with a Spelman tradition, Market Friday. 

And I’ll add both beer and champagne, since that makes me think of the differing backgrounds of Roy and Celestial, and also because why not??  Read and enjoy.