MatrimonyJoshua Henkin
2007
Matrimony is the story of Julian Wainwright and Carter Heinz who meet at Graymont College. Julian and Carter come from different worlds, Julian the son of wealthy New Yorkers and Carter the son of working class parents from California. Carter meets and falls in love with Pilar and Julian meets and falls in love with Mia. The two couples develop a friendship and spend much time together in college.
Senior year, Mia's world is crushed when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. This sends her looking for security with Julian and the two marry shortly before the end of their senior year. Carter spends most of his time trying to make Julian feel bad about where he came from. Always throwing comments about being a "trust fund baby" his way. He always feels inadequate to Julian and this is his own doing.
Things come out into the open when Julian visits Carter for his law school graduation and a dirty little secret is revealed. Julian's whole world is crushed when he finds this out. He and his wife separate. Julian spends the next few years soul searching and finds forgiveness.
This story was very reminiscent of friends of mine from college. Sadly, my friends did not end up the way that Julian and Mia did. I am sure many people can identify with the main characters and the issues that they face. I would have liked another chapter going into Julian's reconciliation with his parents and his relationship with Carter. Overall, this was a good, fast-paced book that brought back many memories from my own college experience.
Joshua Henkin has been kind enough to offer an autographed copy of the paperback when it is released in August so stay tuned for your chance to win!
5 comments:
This sounds like a good read, I havent heard of this author before.
Great review as usual.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/
Thanks Naida! Be sure to check back in August for the giveaway.
I've been dying to get my hands on a copy of this book, what with all of the buzz on the lit blog circuit. Thanks for posting your review. (I'll stay tuned in August.) http://thebluestockings.com
thebluestockingsociety - I'll let you know when I post about the giveaway.
I just finished this one, too. I thought this book was a good character-driven novel. It was interesting to see how each of the characters developed over the years. I'll reviewing this one soon.
Joshua Henkin is sending me a copy to give away in August, too.
Post a Comment