Matrimony

MATRIMONY is a book to savor slowly, to read a little and then stop and consider what you've read and to make inevitable connections of your own. Because Joshua Henkin has somehow managed to tap into the mainstream consciousness of what it was to be young and then suddenly not-so-young back in the 80s and 90s. And yet his characters are unique, memorable and all their own. Henkin has figured out how to combine Everyman and his own particular voices or characters, represented here by Julian Wainwright and alternately, his wife, Mia Mendelsohn. Granted, these two main voices may seem to come from lives of comparative wealth and privilege, but their hopes and dreams, fears and disappointments, heartbreaks and joys are universal.

I show more especially enjoyed the various academic settings, shifting from Ivy League (the fictional Graymont College) to Big Ten (U of M in Ann Arbor) to the Iowa corfields (the Iowa Writers Workshop). Henkin provided plenty of satisfying and authentic details and description, particularly with the two latter campuses. In the Iowa section, Henkin also quite perfectly describes his own writing style, in a passage on a story Julian was working on -

"The story was quiet; all his work was. Perhaps it was a matter of differing aesthetics. There had emerged in American fiction a strain of excess, he believed, a group of knowing authors whose every sentence seemed to shout, 'Look how smart I am.' He had nothing against muscular prose; it was the flexing of those muscles he objected to, and along with it a disregard for character, which, for him, was what fiction was about."

A quiet kind of fiction with emphasis on character - that's what Joshua Henkin writes, as exemplified both here, in MATRIMONY, and also in his wonderful debut novel, SWIMMING ACROSS THE HUDSON.

I was reminded of other novels of academia I've read in the past. They may not have a lot in common, but I'm going to list a few anyway. Philip Roth's early novel, LETTING GO, has always been a particular favorite of mine. So have John Irving's THE WATER METHOD MAN, Marge Piercy's SMALL CHANGES, John Williams's STONER, and Larry McMurtry's MOVING ON and TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. What is the biggest difference between those novels and MATRIMONY is the sweetness Joshua Henkin brings to his stories. He is not afraid to let his feminine side and sensibilities show, as in his description of Mia's fears over a lump she finds in her breast and in his treatment of the whole concept of gene-related breast cancer.

As was true of his first novel, MATRIMONY is a book about love. This time love is examined in the context of marriage, with all its ups and downs. And not just in Julian and Mia's marriage, but in those of their parents - both sets - and their friend Carter. Henkin treads softly and carefully in these areas, and in so doing he has created a story that is both complex and simple all at the same time. Discerning readers will come to care about Julian and Mia, and probably see a bit of themselves in them. I may have said the same thing about SWIMMING ACROSS THE HUDSON, but what the hell, I'll say it again. I loved this book. show less

Really wonderfully written. It's a gentle, quiet story and told so beautifully that I couldn't help but like it. Good stuff.

To say I was thrilled when I learned I won a signed copy of this book in a giveaway hosted by Dewey back in January is an understatement. I had read several reviews of Matrimony by then, some more in favor of the book than others, but ultimately, they all had me curious and wanting to give the book a try.

I began reading Joshua Henkin’s novel, Matrimony, one morning and was finished with it that night. I soaked in the author’s gentle prose and dry wit. I was swept easily into the lives of the characters and suffered alongside them. This was one of those books that mirrored my own life in small ways—meeting my husband my freshman year of college, him following my lead in where we settled down, a mother with breast cancer, show more friendships lost and found, and sibling and parent/child turmoil. These were all things I could relate to on some level and it made the book more real to me.

I was most drawn to Mia who seemed the most complex of the novel’s characters. Perhaps, though, my attraction to her was because it was her I could most relate to. Having just lost a friend to breast cancer earlier in the year and with my mother’s own scare years ago, I could especially understand what Mia had gone through—the fear, the agony, and the guilt. Because of recent events in my life, this aspect of the book spoke the loudest to me, but it was just a part of a bigger story—one about love, commitment, friendship and marriage. It is also about forgiveness and acceptance. This was a book about life.

Joshua Henkin does a good job of capturing the nuances of relationships, including how difficult they can be. Mia and Julian were the focal point of the novel, but their story was not the only one being told. There was subtleness in the way the author weaved in the stories about Mia and Julian’s parents and their own marriages, each fitting in with the book’s overall themes.

This is very much a book about the characters. The events in their lives, their choices and actions propelled the story forward in a natural and realistic way. The characters mature over time and their experiences shape who they become, just as our own lives are shaped by the lives we lead, the decisions we make and the resulting consequences.

Matrimony is a beautifully written novel, one that inspires thought and emotion. Now to go find the author’s first book, Swimming Across the Hudson. show less

Matrimony is the story of Julian and Mia. The book takes you through their meeting (in the laundry room on campus), through their courtship, through their marriage, through all the trials and tribulations of a couple over the course of a two plus decades.

At times I felt like a bit of a voyeur, peaking in on the lives of Julian Wainwright and Mia Mendelsohn. They go through a lot of the normal ups and downs of life, and a few of the not so normal ups and downs. But their realism simply makes it easy to step right into their lives and make yourself at home.

Henkin is a character writer. There is simply no other way to put it. He writes in such a way that you can feel the characters' jubilation's and you can feel their anguish. They are so show more well developed that you might ask yourself at the end of the book, "is this a fiction novel or is this an actual biography?"

I laughed out loud reading about Julian and his best friend Carter in their writing workshop. Their professor was an absolute stitch. I ached for Mia as she watched her mother die, and I equally ached for Julian when he experienced the ultimate betrayal. I celebrated their victories and mourned their losses because over the course of the novel, they became my friends. It takes a powerful writer to create such characters.

There's no mystery to this novel. Instead it is an intimate look at the trials and tribulations, the compromises, the emotions and the depth of a relationship between two people. Sometimes figuring that all out is the greatest mystery of all. I truly enjoyed this book and it has left a lasting impression on me. show less

This is a story about relationships over a period of 15-20 years and centers around two couples as they go from college into marriage and how they each interact with family members and friends outside of their circle. Henkin does a remarkable job of describing the day to day conflicts. The characters are not perfect, but that makes them all the more believable and the story is very well written.

With all of the book blog buzz that has been generated about “Matrimony” in the past couple of months, I just had to read and review the book for myself. I was a bit worried that the book would not live up to its hype, as is often the case, but after reading the first few pages I knew I would not be disappointed.

“Matrimony” takes place over the course of twenty years, primarily following the lives of Julian and Mia, whose relationship blossoms in college and subsequently leads to matrimony. While it can be said that “Matrimony” is indeed a love story, I think it is really so much more. Relationships with family and friends are equally important elements of the storyline and shape who Julian and Mia are, as well as who they show more become. And as with any story that centers on relationships, themes of betrayal, greed, jealousy and death rear their ugly heads. However despite all the drama, there was never a point in the story when I felt like I was stuck in a contrived soap opera world. I did not need to be convinced of the plot’s credibility because I was already picturing it all unfolding right before my very eyes.

The true test of an author’s ability to depict believable characters is whether those fictional people are able to elicit genuine feeling from the reader. Regardless of whether a character inspires my compassion, admiration or even indignation, all that matters is that they are real to me. Henkin has succeeded in this respect, as Julian and Mia, along with most of the supporting characters, jump out of the pages and come alive.

What I loved most about the book is the way events from the past are so intricately weaved throughout the story and never detract from the main plot. It is the fluidity of the narrative that makes “Matrimony” such an effortless read and Henkin’s beautiful writing that makes it such an enjoyable one.

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Matrimony defies easy description. In the simplest sense, the book is about two couples who meet in college and grow into middle age. It’s also about writing, sickness, friendship, and betrayal. Perhaps the best way to describe this book is as a delicate examination of what it means to be married. Henkin’s characters—Julian, Mia, Carter, and Pilar—are interesting as individuals, but Matrimony is really about what happens in the space between these characters. By stringing together seemingly insignificant interactions, Henkin captures the essence of his characters’ relationships. Rather than attempting to explain Julian’s and Mia’s intimacy, for example, Henkin gives us a scene like this one:

In bed at night, they read show more novels to each other, and once, when Mia had the late shift and wasn’t coming home until after he went to sleep, Julian called the restaurant and read to her over the telephone. Mia laughed, pretending she was writing down a take-out order, but when her boss began to stare at her she said she had to go.

The cumulative result of such scenes is a highly believable and sensitive rendering of the relationship between spouses.

Henkin’s well-crafted prose nicely complements the story, its unobtrusiveness supporting the purity and simplicity of Henkin’s deeper message. In a statement that must be autobiographical, one of Henkin’s characters—Julian—describes his view of fiction:

There had emerged in American fiction a strain of excess, he believed, a group of knowing authors whose every sentence seemed to shout, “Look how smart I am.” He had nothing against muscular prose; it was the flexing of those muscles that he objected to, and along with it, a disregard for character, which for him, was what fiction was about.

Like for Julian, fiction is about characters for Henkin. By the end of Matrimony, I liked these characters and cared about them, particularly Julian and Mia. I continue to have fond recollections of them weeks after finishing the book.

If Matrimony has a weakness, it’s the ending. For a book that isn’t much about plot, the ending is too neat and feels a bit contrived and unnatural given all that has come before. I would’ve preferred the book to end with more ambiguity, but this is a small complaint. Matrimony is a masterful accomplishment, and I highly recommend it.

This review also appears on my literary blog Literary License. show less