As a whole, the book asks, as Dubus’s son André III noted: “How can a man and woman ever be truly married to one another without losing their very souls?”Ħ. In the final piece, Hank is divorced and trapped in his alternately self-aggrandising and self-pitying habits, unable to find happiness or peace. In the middle story, Adultery, Edith falls in love with a dying priest. In the title novella, each of them cheats with the other’s partner. We Don’t Live Here Anymore by André Dubus (1984) This triptych of novellas centres on two married couples, Hank and Edith Allison, and Jack and Terry Linhart. Ĭheating couples … Mark Ruffalo, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts and Laura Dern in the film adaptation of We Don’t Live Here Anymore. An account of a woman’s mental unravelling after her husband leaves her for a much younger woman, the book’s power is in its fearless, closeup details (I can’t think of a more painful animal death scene) and in the ways the narrative subtly implicates the reader: given a certain set of horrific circumstances, I, too, might be capable of this psychic fury. The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante (2002) I read this on vacation one summer, in a single sitting, paralysed with the exquisite literary sickness that comes from the combination of aesthetic appreciation on the one hand, and recognition of oneself on the other. One of her lesser-known stories, this is nonetheless a technical and emotional wonder, and my favourite Munro story.Ĥ. The story’s heat is in the buildup rather than the act of infidelity itself (the sex happens off stage) and in the “exquisite shame” of the aftermath, when Meriel wonders whether or not to tell her husband. Meriel is writing from a point more than 30 years after the central event: a one-night affair with a near-stranger. What Is Remembered by Alice Munro (2001) This one’s a short story, but, typical of Munro, the narrator’s retrospective stance gives the piece the scope and import of a novel. Part love story, part philosophical treatise, part anatomical guide, Written on the Body defies categorisation, dispensing with cliches and stereotypes to forge, from the raw physicality of the body itself, a new language for love.ģ. They have a passionate affair – until the husband tells the narrator that Louise has leukaemia. Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson (1992) A nameless, genderless narrator falls for a married woman named Louise. Love doesn’t have to be either/or, and this breadth of understanding distinguishes Light Years from other novels about affairs. Salter details the dissolution of their marriage while insisting that love still undergirds all – despite their infidelities, the Berlands love one another. Nedra and Viri Berland have what looks like the perfect marriage and family, yet in private their relationship is imploding. Salter is known as a virtuoso writer on illicit sex and infidelity. Light Years by James Salter (1975) Not just one of the best novels about marriage and infidelity but one of the best novels ever, period. I’ve also included a poetry collection and a short story, because I think the compression of these forms is suited to the intensity of the subject matter.ġ. With these classics taken as read, I’ve listed only contemporary works, all published in my lifetime. But these works are always included on lists like this. When I initially drafted this list, I began with the obvious suspects: Anna Karenina, Lady With the Pet Dog, Madame Bovary and The End of the Affair. Further, women are bravely speaking out against male abuses of power and sexual coercion in the workplace – but what about sexual coercion and abuse within a marriage? Or within the context of religion, where traditional gender roles and prohibitions against extramarital sex might make it difficult to speak up? Perhaps my protagonist Maggie’s predicament – to stay or not to stay in the marriage – will serve as a platform for discussion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |