Monogamy is an old-fashioned, slow burn of a novel that allows readers to dream deeply. . . full of depth and contrast and lush detail.
The shifting perspectives in the narrative . . . demonstrate how dependent truth is on what is shown to us. Sue Miller’s skillfulness at doing so makes a familiar plot into an original story that reflects the real-life complexity of long relationships. Monogamy demonstrates that Miller remains one of the finest cartographers of the territory of marriage.”
The emotional beauty of Monogamy arises from the impact of her characters’ interactions on one another, and how their memories of those interactions and of other events shape, shift and reshape.
Cover Interview (Starred Review) BookPage
In an absorbing and meticulously crafted page-turner…Miller depicts both her characters and their Cambridge environs with such tenderness and precision that many readers will feel regret when Miller’s story, like life itself, reaches its inevitable end.”
A well-woven book about sexual attraction, family dynamics and the mess they make together. . . . Everyone in this novel hungers for love and loyalty, but no one truly achieves it. And yet after myriad struggles and revelations, those with the most attentive, loving hearts find peace.”
Miller takes on and renews familiar themes of trust and betrayal between husbands and wives, parents and children, and does so with her signature crystalline focus and boundless empathy. The grieving process is hard enough to endure without having to question everything one ever knew about the deceased, an emotional minefield Miller traverses with grace and authenticity that are both haunting and vital.
The shifting perspectives in the narrative . . . demonstrate how dependent truth is on what is shown to us. Sue Miller’s skillfulness at doing so makes a familiar plot into an original story that reflects the real-life complexity of long relationships. Monogamy demonstrates that Miller remains one of the finest cartographers of the territory of marriage.”
Penetrating, intelligent, humane, funny too... And although it's such a sad subject it's somehow not a downbeat book, too smart and powerfully alive for that
I was completely wrapped up in the beautifully, and often so tenderly observed rollercoaster of grief. Oh my goodness with what exquisite truth Sue Miller writes. An invaluably moving book
"A gripping novel."
A sensual and perceptive novel. . . . With humor and humanity, Miller resists the simple scorned-wife story and instead crafts a revelatory tale of the complexities—and the absurdities—of love, infidelity, and grief.” O, The Oprah Magazine
"A haunting meditation on love, marriage, fidelity, betrayal, and loss...Miller's work is magnificent and moving. Consider it for your next book club."
"Sue Miller’s engrossing novel is infused with generosity and the complicated kind of love readers will recognize from real life."
New York Times Book Review
The emotional beauty of Monogamy arises from the impact of her characters’ interactions on one another, and how their memories of those interactions and of other events shape, shift and reshape.”
%COMM_CONTRIB%BookPage, Cover Interview (Starred Review)
★ 06/01/2020
Miller (The Arsonist ) delivers a robust, character-driven examination of the inner workings of a lengthy marriage. Domestic tranquility quickly totters into roiling turmoil as photographer Annie McFarlane struggles with grief after the sudden death of Graham, her bookstore-owning husband of almost 30 years. When Annie met Graham on the opening night of his shop in Harvard Square, each was coming off a disastrous first marriage. Annie never really loved Alan, a handsome preppy filled with contempt for others, including her, and she left him. Graham’s first marriage was an open one (“It had been that era”), but his prodigious affairs were too much for Frieda, who left him with their young son. Frieda and Graham remained friends after their divorce, “leading to the lasting complexity of their entwined lives.” Annie feels “doubly betrayed” when she learns that Graham had confided in Frieda about a recent affair. The novel takes on various configurations, swelling with recovered memories of childhood experiences and crackling with revelations of seductive temptations at an artist’s colony. Annie swirls through bitterness and missed opportunities on her way to an acceptance of a “new sorrow,” while Graham’s Rabelaisian, larger-than-life personality is felt even in his absence. The novel is grounded by vibrant prose, vividly portrayed secondary characters, and the resiliency of everlasting love. Miller’s fans will devour this spectacular, powerful return. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME. (Sept.)
Miller is one of our most emotionally profound and nuanced writers. . . . The deeper I got into Monogamy , the more it made me think of James Joyce's ‘The Dead,’ about a man whose sense of his marriage is radically changed by one fateful moment. Both narratives end on a snow-silenced night haunted by ghosts — ghosts who are out of reach, but still, maddeningly, messing with the living.
What makes a good marriage? . . . .The book’s title isn’t the full answer for the couple in this emotionally perceptive novel. . . . The key to a happy marriage, Miller’s moving story suggests, lies in just this: two people opening themselves up to one another – like inviting books.
Christian Science Monitor
04/01/2020
Won in a pitched-battle auction, this latest from the New York Times best-selling Miller features introspective photographer Annie, long married to gregarious bookseller Graham and nervously on the verge of her first gallery show in six years. She's shocked when he dies suddenly and even more shocked to discover he was briefly unfaithful to her before his death. With an eight-city tour and a 200,000-copy first printing.
Author Sue Miller's familiarity with the text is evident in her precise and thoughtful delivery of this audiobook. The story centers on Annie, a photographer who has been married to Graham, a bookshop owner, for many years. After Graham's unexpected death, cracks in their seemingly content marriage appear. Annie's resentment and grief over her loss, as well as a flood of memories of her earlier years, are poignantly rendered. Although Miller employs the subtlest of vocal shifts for her characterizations, she compellingly presents Graham, Annie, and their daughter, Sarah, as well as their multidimensional relatives and friends. Miller's graceful tone, expressive phrasing, and unhurried pace allow listeners to ease into this contemplative story. M.J. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Author Sue Miller's familiarity with the text is evident in her precise and thoughtful delivery of this audiobook. The story centers on Annie, a photographer who has been married to Graham, a bookshop owner, for many years. After Graham's unexpected death, cracks in their seemingly content marriage appear. Annie's resentment and grief over her loss, as well as a flood of memories of her earlier years, are poignantly rendered. Although Miller employs the subtlest of vocal shifts for her characterizations, she compellingly presents Graham, Annie, and their daughter, Sarah, as well as their multidimensional relatives and friends. Miller's graceful tone, expressive phrasing, and unhurried pace allow listeners to ease into this contemplative story. M.J. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
2020-06-03 What do we do with bad news of the dead? A near-perfect second marriage is disrupted—first by death, then by posthumous revelations.
Boston bookstore owner Graham McFarlane is such a lovable and forgivable man that the ex-wife he cheated on, Frieda, and her replacement, a photographer named Annie, whom he is also cheating on, are close friends. Woman No. 3 is not going to make it into the circle, though, as Graham dies of a heart attack the day after he stops by her house to break up with her in a fit of uxoriousness and remorse. This death happens fairly early in the book, but since the reader knows about the affair and Annie does not, the first two-thirds of Miller’s 13th novel are infused with a merry narrative tension. That energy dissipates somewhat when Annie eventually finds out about Graham's infidelity. At this point the novel becomes more meditative, sticking close to Annie as she deals with the disorienting feeling that she never really knew the man she deeply loved—and who so clearly loved her—for 30 years. As their daughter, Sarah, describes her “Rabelaisian” father, “He was big, in every way. A lover of life. And kind .…He made people happy, without even trying.” Of course the last thing Annie wants is for Graham’s children, or anyone else, to know what she now knows. Miller’s skill at depicting the intricacies of marriage, parenting, and domestic life, the atmosphere of the independent bookstore, and the pleasures of flowers, wine, and food (a craving for split pea soup with ham and dill, served with “a loaf of dark rye [from] Formaggio,” lingers still) makes this book charming and inviting in a way that is somewhat at odds with its sorrowful impetus.
A thoughtful and realistic portrait of those golden people who seem to have such enviable lives.