July Reading Challenge: 'An American Marriage'

Happy Saturday everybody! 

As you may or may not have noticed, this post is a day late (sorry!). Considering we are still in quarantine, this week has been preeetty busy: we may have gotten a dog (still doing a trial period), my fam has been feeling a bit under the weather, and I've started working again (yay!). Long story short, my apologies for being late with the first post and discussion. 

Now, onto the book! For those who didn't read it or weren't able to finish it in time, here is a brief summary of "An American Marriage" by Tayari Jones. SPOILER ALERT! "An American Marriage" focuses on the story of a Black newlywed couple, Celestial and Roy. Early in the book, Roy gets accused of raping a woman in a motel while he is actually sleeping innocently with his wife in another room. He is arrested and incarcerated with a sentence of 12 years. He ultimately only serves 5 years of that sentence when he is proven innocent in the Court of Appeals. Throughout the course of the novel, Tayari analyses the effects of Roy's incarceration on their marriage. She examines the viewpoints of both Celestial and Roy to illustrate the damaging effects incarceration has on the lives of so many. Definitely an interesting read. 

Before I get into my analysis I wanted to share a few of my favourite/interesting quotes from the book that I feel can open up a discussion in themselves:

"I know they kicked it in, but the written report says that a front-desk clerk handed over the key and the door was opened in a civilized manner. But who knows what is true?" (34). 

"Maybe that's what innocence is, having no way to predict the pain of the future. When something happens that eclipses the imaginable, it changes a person" (41).

"When I was in high school, too old for Roy to punish me for cutting up, the way boys do, he would say, 'Listen here, boy, get yourself arrested, don't call me. I'm not into prodigals. I don't do welcome-back parties.' But that was when we thought incarceration had something to do with being guilty or at least being stupid" (127). 

"Now Mr. Davenport was loyal to Roy above his own daughter. In a way, the whole black race was loyal to Roy, a man just down from the cross" (192). 

To start with: this book is not what I expected. While I understood that the novel would focus on marriage and how incarceration affects relationships on all levels, I was unprepared for the extent of it. Instead of focusing on the injustice of locking an innocent man away due to the colour of his skin, Tayari wove this commentary more discretely throughout the book. While at first, this itself seemed like an injustice to the experience of Roy, upon further consideration I realised that this was probably Tayari's intent. Not much focus was put on this point because this kind of injustice happens all the time. His story is not a special one and his circumstances are not out of the ordinary. If I wanted to read about the injustice of mass incarceration and the overwhelming racial factors involved I should have read a different book. In taking a different viewpoint with this novel, Tayari illustrates how relationships and the binding contract of marriage can so easily be dismantled by the justice system's racial biases. 

Another important idea I observed was the notion of expectation versus reality. The most obvious example of this in the novel is Roy's expectation of leading an ambitious and successful life only to have that dismantled by the State. The other big way that this theme reveals itself is in the notion of marriage itself. Throughout the book, the fundamentals of marriage are put to question. For me, reading this book will have been completely different to somebody who has gone through the trials and experiences of marriage themselves (which in itself is super interesting to me - please discuss below!). I have grown up with the romantic notion that marriage is a binding contract and that if you have made the commitment to somebody, that's exactly how it should be seen - a commitment. Tayari mentions this idea a lot too; the binding contract of marriage and what that actually means in reality. While Celestial and Roy have a content marriage, it is only when Celestial sees the devotion in Roy's father that she releases she has been fooling herself all along; "'I've done everything I'm supposed to do. I haven't thought about any other man, let alone touched one. But when I look at Mr. Roy out there, at his wife's grave, I feel like I've been playing at marriage. That I don't know what it is to be committed'" (153).  She has been living the ideals of marriage, devoted and concerned but realizes that her definition of marriage is skewed and not based on true love. In addition to this, it is incredibly interesting to observe the marriage of other characters in the book too, namely that of Roy and Celestial's parents. They are often portrayed as having a perfect and loving marriage - the kind that is normally idealized in society. However, it is important to note how those marriages were formed. Roy was born illegitimately before his mother found a man to settle down with while Celestial's parents found each other while her father was still married to somebody else. Even the idealized marriages in the novel stem from unconventional beginnings.  

There are so many more things I can discuss and write about in this post but I'd like to leave some of it for other people to add and discuss too! The discussion questions listed below are predominantly taken from the book itself (Tayari includes a specific section for discussion questions) and some about the themes in general. This challenge was meant to open up a discussion about race and include as many voices as possible so all are welcome to (respectfully) respond! 

Note: you don't have to answer all of the questions, just any that stick out to you or anything you found interesting about the novel.

1. The title of this novel is "An American Marriage." Do you feel this title accurately represents the novel? Why or why not? And if you do find the title appropriate, what about the story makes it particularly "American"?
2. Is Celestial's happiness with her new life illegitimate because of the shadow of Roy's distress?
3. You may not have noticed that Tayari Jones does not specify the race of the woman who accuses Roy of rape. How did you picture this woman? What difference does the race of this woman make in the way you understand the novel's storyline?
4. In what other ways do you think incarceration impacts people, particularly Black men?
5. What is the definition or ideal of marriage to you? Does this novel accurately portray that?
6. What do you think of the way that race is portrayed in the novel?
7. How does mass incarceration impact American society as a whole?
8. Have you experienced or witnessed racial discrimination in your personal life?