My Marriage (New York Review Books Classics)

Kafka’s conception of bureaucracy is made manifest in the figure of Ganna, a pedantic, delusional woman who is aroused by the smell of ink and the dotted lines found on legal documents. Wonderful character study of a man who is totally incapable of escaping the sphere of a woman lost, perpetually enamoured (or perhaps more accurately myopically intrigued) by a woman whose inner fire and clawing tenacity is inextinguishable.

I usually love everything I read from NYRB Classics, but this one was a chore to finish with few rewards. In this book, a disguised memoir (and actually an excerpt from a trilogy), the author, against his better judgment, marries an unstable woman and pays for it for the rest of his life (literally).

Unfortunately, Wasserman shows very little awareness of his role in his wife's behavior, and just as little interest in considering her motivations. Instead, we get an endless litany of injustices and indignities inflicted on him and no resolution. It's a relief when the book arbitrarily comes to an end.