2008: #82 – Matrimony (Joshua Henkin)

Book #82 was Matrimony by Joshua Henkin.  The back of the book reads:

It’s the fall of 1986, and Julian Wainwright, an aspiring writer, arrives at Graymont College in New England. Here he meets Carter Heinz, with whom he develops a strong but ambivalent friendship, and beautiful Mia Mendelsohn, with whom he falls in love. Spurred on by a family tragedy, Julian and Mia’s love affair will carry them to graduation and beyond, taking them through several college towns, over the next fifteen years. Starting at the height of the Reagan era and ending in the new millennium, Matrimony is a stunning novel of love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith. It is a richly detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone-to do it when you’re young, and to try to do it afresh on the brink of middle age.

The first emotion this book invoked in me was nostalgia… It actually made me miss my own college creative writing class.  I want to know the rest of Professor Chesterfield’s 117 commandments!  But this book isn’t about writing, it’s about relationships — between friends, between husbands and wives, between parents and children, between siblings, with ourselves — and how imperfect they can be. And I think it’s also about how the life you picture when you are young is nothing like the life you will live. My one complaint was that I wanted to know more about what happens with Mia during the times she and Julian are apart. I rather enjoyed this, and despite the turmoil in the story, it was a very smooth read that I definitely recommend.

Come back on October 6 when, courtesy of Mr. Henkin, I will be giving away a brand-new signed paperback of Matrimony!

Page count: 291 | Approximate word count: 109,060

2007: Split Second (Alex Kava)
2006: Ruby (V.C. Andrews)