2008 Woodie Awards
"Marriage" eloquently explored
Greer shows truth of love
By Vinh Nguyen, Collegian Correspondent
Issue date: 9/2/08 Section: Arts & Living
Ask several people who have been in a failed relationship about their former lovers, and often their refrain will sound similar to this: "I didn't really know him/her."
But as Pearlie Cook, the narrator from Andrew Sean Greer's novel "The Story of a Marriage," so eloquently asserts, "We think know the ones we love … But what we love turns out to be a poor translation, a translation we ourselves have made, from a language we barely know."
And it is through this theme of mistranslation that Greer, acclaimed author of "The Confessions of Max Tivoli," so beautifully crafts his imaginative prose.
Unlike most couples, Pearlie and her husband, the attractive and alluring Holland Cook, were strangers not once but twice. They first met as children living in rural Kentucky. Although World War II eventually separates them, it would also be the cause of their accidental reunion years later in San Francisco, where Pearlie works for the government and Holland returns as a sailor.
Their romance quickly rekindles and despite warnings from Holland's aunts regarding his conditions - incurable "bad blood" and a "crooked heart" - Pearlie marries him, devoting herself entirely to the duties of a housewife.
Even after bearing a polio-stricken son, Pearlie remains undeterred in her quest to maintain harmony for her family. For the sake of her husband's weak heart, she clips emotionally harmful articles from his newspaper, purchases a vibrating household phone and even manages to find a dog who cannot bark. She goes as far as sleeping in a separate bedroom, providing Holland, a sensitive sleeper, with undisturbed rest.
This family dynamic, however, changes when Pearlie meets Charles "Buzz" Drumer, a handsome, well-dressed friend of Holland's from his sailor days. Buzz delivers a proposition to Pearlie that not only reveals how little she knows about her husband but also how little readers know about the characters; there are subtle quirks about the Cooks that will baffle most readers. And the revelation of why the Cooks are so different will piece all the previous nuances together like a puzzle, demonstrating Greer's true genius in storytelling.
But as Pearlie Cook, the narrator from Andrew Sean Greer's novel "The Story of a Marriage," so eloquently asserts, "We think know the ones we love … But what we love turns out to be a poor translation, a translation we ourselves have made, from a language we barely know."
And it is through this theme of mistranslation that Greer, acclaimed author of "The Confessions of Max Tivoli," so beautifully crafts his imaginative prose.
Unlike most couples, Pearlie and her husband, the attractive and alluring Holland Cook, were strangers not once but twice. They first met as children living in rural Kentucky. Although World War II eventually separates them, it would also be the cause of their accidental reunion years later in San Francisco, where Pearlie works for the government and Holland returns as a sailor.
Their romance quickly rekindles and despite warnings from Holland's aunts regarding his conditions - incurable "bad blood" and a "crooked heart" - Pearlie marries him, devoting herself entirely to the duties of a housewife.
Even after bearing a polio-stricken son, Pearlie remains undeterred in her quest to maintain harmony for her family. For the sake of her husband's weak heart, she clips emotionally harmful articles from his newspaper, purchases a vibrating household phone and even manages to find a dog who cannot bark. She goes as far as sleeping in a separate bedroom, providing Holland, a sensitive sleeper, with undisturbed rest.
This family dynamic, however, changes when Pearlie meets Charles "Buzz" Drumer, a handsome, well-dressed friend of Holland's from his sailor days. Buzz delivers a proposition to Pearlie that not only reveals how little she knows about her husband but also how little readers know about the characters; there are subtle quirks about the Cooks that will baffle most readers. And the revelation of why the Cooks are so different will piece all the previous nuances together like a puzzle, demonstrating Greer's true genius in storytelling.
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