An American Marriage by Tayari Jones: A Review

“Someone always pays. Bullet don’t have nobody’s name on it, that’s what people say. I think the same is true for vengeance. Maybe even for love. It’s out there, random and deadly, like a tornado.” – Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

This is an incredible novel. It is told through the voices of Roy, Celestial and Andre. Celestial and Andre are childhood best friends who grew up in a black, middle class neighborhood in Atlanta. In college, Andre introduces Celestial to Roy, a young man from rural Louisiana with a lot of ambition. When the novel opens, Celestial and Roy are already newlyweds; there are indications of cracks forming in their marriage. Then Roy is convicted of a violent crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison for twelve years.

The story becomes a love triangle between Celestial and Roy, who try to hold their relationship together, and Celestial and Andre, the best friend she turns to when she can no longer fit her life dreams inside her role of being an inmate’s wife. Five years into his jail term, when Roy’s sentence is overturned and he is unexpectedly released, he heads back to Atlanta to see what, if anything, remains of his marriage. Celestial is left to choose between her husband and the man who has always been there for her. The love story is heartbreaking in its complexity. Through their voices, Jones’s depicts the strengths and flaws of her characters so that they read like real people. Jones’s use first-person narration for each character means that their desires and motivations are stripped raw – the reader understands the events unfolding from all three perspectives and this heightens the emotional tensions Jones creates. Jones has crafted the three narrator’s voices together so seamlessly in places that it is almost like you are able to understand the obstacles that confront the characters through a layering of perspective that resonates in terms of its complexity. It creates a strong sense of what each stands to lose or gain – but even the gains will come at the expense of each other and there is no easy path out.

Jones’s examination of the impact of race, class and gender roles on the black community in the American south runs like a harmony beneath the love story. So many of the decisions the characters make are informed by what is expected of someone who is black, or female, or wealthy. They are never free of those expectations and choosing to buck them comes with consequence. Celestial’s marriage becomes political even within her own family – her father sees her choice to begin a relationship with Andre as a betrayal not only of her marriage vows, but of her community. Roy is a wrongfully convicted black man in a state and a country that disproportionately convicts people of African descent. To her father, Celestial’s decision means turning her back on the injustices that black men face in America and on her role as a black woman where the expectation is to support her man despite the personal cost. The book is a powerful reminder about the vulnerability of people in a society where race and class can determine your fate and the system doesn’t protect you.

If I had to describe this novel in one word it would be powerful. At times the emotional suffering of the characters weighs heavy but Jones’s writing is so compelling and the characters she creates are so real that pacing never slows. I read this book really quickly. I think if you like Celeste Ng’s novels, then Jones is likely an author who will speak to you.

Have you read An American Marriage? Drop me a line and let me know. Until next week, happy reading!