海角大神

What makes a good marriage? That鈥檚 the question driving Sue Miller鈥檚 11th novel, 鈥淢onogamy.鈥� And without spoiling anything, I can tell you that the book鈥檚 title isn鈥檛 the full answer for the couple in this story.

Beginning with 鈥淭he Good Mother鈥� in 1986, Miller has garnered a devoted readership for her character-driven, psychologically astute domestic novels, many of which delve deeply into how marriages and families work 鈥� or don鈥檛. Fans will not be disappointed with 鈥淢onogamy,鈥� an emotionally perceptive book that tracks a woman鈥檚 conflicted feelings about her long marriage following her husband鈥檚 sudden death. Miller鈥檚 first novel since 鈥淭he Arsonist鈥� (2014) hits many of her recurrent themes 鈥� including how impulsive behavior, sexual or otherwise, can fracture relationships, and how memories can change over time.聽

Annie and Graham McFarlane are not an obvious match. When they first meet in their mid-30s at a party celebrating the opening of his bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, both are ashamed by the failures of their first marriages. Graham is outsized in every way 鈥� physically large, gregarious, Rabelaisian in his appetites and enthusiasm. Annie is petite and self-contained, a photographer sometimes accused of coldness or detachment. As their daughter Sarah later explains, 鈥淢y mother holds it all in, my father lets it out.鈥�

Annie is drawn to Graham鈥檚 joyfulness and 鈥渉is honest embrace of pleasure,鈥� but she sometimes finds him overwhelming and worries that he will consume her whole.聽

A third party in their marriage is Graham鈥檚 first wife, Frieda, who left him because their open marriage and his many affairs were causing her too much pain. But Graham, 鈥渁 person who never wasted a friendship, or a relationship,鈥� has remained close with her, and, remarkably, Frieda and Annie have become good friends over the three decades of his second marriage.

鈥淗e鈥檚 been much more careful in his marriage to Annie,鈥� Miller writes. 鈥淢ore careful and more faithful.鈥� But, we learn in the next sentence, 鈥渘ot entirely faithful.鈥� And that鈥檚 the rub. It鈥檚 also what鈥檚 troubling Graham on what turns out to be his last day alive: He feels bad about an impulsive affair that was meant to be a lighthearted fling but has turned into an albatross. He chastises himself for being 鈥渟uch a fat, sad, needy man.鈥� Annie, missing the import of what he鈥檚 trying to tell her until much later, tries to jolly him. 鈥淚 thought you were a fat, happy man,鈥� she ribs.

Miller takes us through the waves of emotions Annie experiences after the shock of Graham鈥檚 death and her realization of his infidelity. Among them is rage 鈥� at both Graham and herself 鈥� for allowing herself to be subsumed by him. Her life feels shapeless, empty, depleted without his energy. If she鈥檇 been more separate and independent, she thinks, 鈥淭hen she wouldn鈥檛 feel so hollowed-out now.鈥�

There鈥檚 a lot of explication in the novel鈥檚 early scenes, backstories that are dutifully spelled out. But 鈥淢onogamy鈥� pulls you in, especially when Miller shifts her sympathetic gaze from one McFarlane to another in tight third-person perspectives 鈥� Graham, Annie, Frieda, Frieda鈥檚 son Lucas, and Annie鈥檚 daughter Sarah. They all come to realize that, encouraged by Graham, they had relied on him too much. This is a novel that works not through dazzling images or narrative pyrotechnics but through the steady accretion of clear-eyed observations relayed in limpid prose.聽

Miller captures Graham鈥檚 magnetism, a centrifugal force even in his absence. He鈥檚 a man who overcompensated for his unhappy, fatherless childhood 鈥� yet was unable to make up for the lack of affection from his abandoned, abusive mother. Annie comes to realize that 鈥淪he could never have surrendered enough of herself to make it perfect for him.鈥�

On her twisty road to a gentler, more straightforward grief, Annie recalls that her bookseller husband believed that reading fiction was consoling because it 鈥渟uggests that life has a shape. ... That it has sequence and consequence,鈥� which 鈥渕ade life seem to matter.鈥� She also recalls that Graham called her an open book 鈥� not in an insulting way, but fondly, 鈥淎 book, open to him.鈥�

The key to a happy marriage, Miller鈥檚 moving story suggests, lies in just this: two people opening themselves up to one another 鈥� like inviting books.

In addition to 海角大神, Heller McAlpin reviews books regularly for NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.