The Story of a Marriage: A Novel

A surprising love triangle

There are many suprises in _The Story of a Marriage_: plot twists (including a big one at the climax), horrors of war, characters that "fill out" suddenly and spectacularly. Perhaps my favorite surprise was the emergence over the course of the book of the secondary characters of "the aunts," two older ladies who watch over, comment on, and try coarsely to shape the main characters' decisions. Late in the book, however, the aunts are (to me) quite suddenly revealed as their own persons, characters with a story that is probably as interesting as the one Greer chose to tell. I was touched by the respect the author showed thusly to the vastness and complication of life. Most of _The Story of a Marriage_ is small and focused, well-written and evocative of a number of great literary works. Holland, the husband in the titular marriage is only ever shown through his effects on the other main characters, like Irene, the object of desire in John Galsworthy's _The Forsyte Saga_. The strictures placed on the characters by their society, their place and time and gender, recall Edith Wharton's _The Age of Innocence_. The final scene of the novel echoes _Innocence_ quite forcefully, as well. Greer's short novel raises longer-lasting questions. The central conceit of the book, that those we think we know best are merely "a new kind of stranger," may leave the reader wondering. What if one's life changed forever? What if it was still the same life after all? Read more