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A love story full of secrets and astonishments set in 1950s San Francisco. "We think we know the ones we love." So Pearlie Cook begins her indirect and devastating exploration of the mystery at the heart of every relationship, how we can ever truly know another person. It is 1953 and Pearlie, a dutiful housewife, finds herself living in the Sunset district of San Francisco, caring not only for her husband's fragile health but also for her son, who is afflicted with polio. Then, one Saturday morning, a stranger appears on her doorstep and everything changes. All the certainties by which Pearlie has lived are thrown into doubt. Does she know her husband at all? And what does the stranger want in return for his offer of $100,000? For six months in 1953, young Pearlie Cook struggles to understand the world around her, most especially her husband, Holland. Pearlie's story is a meditation not only on love but also on the effects of war--with one war just over and another one in Korea coming to a close. Set in a climate of fear and repression--political, sexual, and racial--"The Story of a Marriage "portrays three people trapped by the confines of their era, and the desperate measures they are prepared to take to escape it. Lyrical and surprising, "The Story of a Marriage "looks back at a period that we tend to misremember as one of innocence and simplicity.
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Previews available in: French English
Subjects
Spouses, Husband and wife, Gay men, Literature, African American families, Fiction, Triangles (Interpersonal relations), Housewives, History, Social life and customs, Manners and customs, African American women, Fiction, romance, general, San francisco (calif.), fiction, Fiction, historical, Fiction, romance, historical, Married people, fiction, Large type books, New York Times reviewed, LGBTQ novels, Fiction, family life, Fiction, historical, general, Young women, fiction, Man-woman relationships, fiction, Fiction, romance, historical, general, United states, fictionTimes
1953-1961Showing 10 featured editions. View all 25 editions?
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The story of a marriage
2008, Faber and Faber, Faber & Faber, FABER AND FABER
in English
0571240984 9780571240982
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The Story of a Marriage
2008, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
in English
- 1st ed.
0374108668 9780374108663
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The Story of a Marriage
April 29, 2008, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Hardcover
in English
0374108668 9780374108663
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Originally published: London: Faber, 2008.
English.
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The Physical Object
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Work Description
A Today Show Summer Reads Pick
A Washington Post Book of the Year
"We think we know the ones we love." So Pearlie Cook begins her indirect, and devastating exploration of the mystery at the heart of every relationship--how we can ever truly know another person.
It is 1953 and Pearlie, a dutiful young housewife, finds herself living in the Sunset District in San Francisco, caring not only for her husband's fragile health, but also for her son, who is afflicted with polio. Then, one Saturday morning, a stranger appears on her doorstep, and everything changes. Lyrical, and surprising, The Story of a Marriage is, in the words of Khaled Housseini, "a book about love, and it is a marvel to watch Greer probe the mysteries of love to such devastating effect."
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