In An American Marriage, Celestial and Roy have been married for only a little over a year when he is wrongly convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison. What follows is the five years that they spend apart while Roy is in prison, and then after his conviction is overturned and he is once again a free man. In the meantime, she has moved on with a mutual friend. When he returns, Celestial has to make a difficult choice.
The writing in this book is beautiful. There were many insightful and moving passages on the incarceration of blacks in America, the ravages of time when innocent people are locked up, and the complexity of love through hard times.
What took away from the book for me was how unlikable Roy is after he gets out of prison. He treats Celestial like a piece of property, repeating over and over that she is his, as if she isn't a real person with thoughts and emotions of her own. To me, when you love someone, you would do anything to see them happy, even if it means they are with someone else. Celestial, in turn, seems resigned to be his property, saying that really she doesn't have a choice. To read this sort of messed-up dynamic is really frustrating and spoiled what would otherwise have been a great book.
Readaroo Rating: 3 stars
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