Not bad, but...

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This wasn't a bad listen, but slightly disappointing if you are expecting a book as good as Middlesex.

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Eugenides is brilliant, I'll pass on the narrator

I loved The Marriage Plot when I first read it. It's a sophisticated coming-of-age story that required Eugenides to have a scholarly grasp of subjects from Victorian literature to bipolar disorder to the reproduction of yeast cells. This combines with magical characterisation that turns the whole thing into a compelling work of fiction. But I was disappointed when I bought the audiobook and heard the narrator's voice, which for my ear almost has a sneering quality. Looking at the other reviews he really divides the audience, so listen to the excerpt before you buy.

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Epic drama

It's all about the fascinating characters and how they interact. Wonderful writing, brought to life by the peerless David Pittu, audiobook royalty. He has so many voices. A literary ventriloquist, male and female. Go listen to his reading of The Goldfinch, if you want another treat. Only Michael Sheen is in the same league.

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5 Stars for the Novel, 1 Star for the Reading!

I didn't want to mark the novel down for the awful reading by David Pittu, because I really enjoyed the writing. But Pittu's reading is really, really awful. He is fine at the straight narration, but as another reviewer pointed out he CANNOT do women voices--they are all uniformly high pitched, whiny, and camp--it's very very distracting. In fact, I ended up buying the novel just so I could read the book in peace!

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A book that doesn't live up to its promise

I loved the first half of this book.we were thrown into a college life filled with promise and recognisable pretentiousness. but wow what an atmosphere.sparkling dialogue and set up. Great story and characters.really felt like it had the gravitas of an epic novel.but never lived up to it.the ending is so trite and self conscious it was as though it was written by a different author.

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Not quite Middlesex but...

I loved both Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides, and The Marriage Plot doesn't disappoint- however it isn't quite the intricate saga that Middlesex was.
Madelaine is about to graduate from Uni having studied English Lit and Language, in particular the novels of the 19th century which more often than not centre around the courting, love triangles and eventual marriage of their protagonists. She loses herself in a relationship with the 'wrong' guy who she idolises due to his incredible mind but who also unfortunately suffers from severe depression and mental illness. She in turn rejects the advances of the possibly 'right' guy, Mitchell, who indeed also has his problems and so unfolds a story of a modern love triangle. The book looks human psychology, the naivety and meaning of love, the search for spiritual enlightenment (is there such thing as an unselfish act?) and the stages and effects of mental illness.
I loved this book because it reminded me of my state of mind whilst at university and during my first proper relationship. I also loved the insight into each character, not one of them flawless or indeed even very likable but all three vulnerable and very real. It reminded me very much of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, just really great American Literature which has something to say about society in a very quiet and therefore genuine way.
And because a Audiobook is only as good as it's narrator, I would also have to comment that David Pittu was excellent and made a great book worth listening to.

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7 people found this helpful

Dissatisfying

This was a disappointment after Middlesex and it has nothing of that novel's layers, complexities and humour. I found the first part rather boring and its juvenile characters with their narcissistic obsessions irritating rather than enlightening. It didn't give me any insight into my own (distant) university days - I just hope I wasn't as awful but I probably was just as wrapped up in my own internal monologue. The would-be intellectual discussions were pretentious and I wasn't sure they were meant to be. However, I hung on and by the second part and was more involved with the characters and the exploration through the two men of a kind of madness and a search for spiritual meaning. The conclusion seems to be that only the mad can find spiritual meaning in their experiences and that true spiritual exploration brings you back into the material world. I was left feeling that the female character had been shortchanged by both men with their intellectual pretensions - but maybe they were only reflecting back her own sterile intellectual obsessions with dead eighteen and nineteenth literature from a culture not her own. This is ultimately depressing and although it has left me with something to think about I would not chose to listen to any more by the author. The reader is excellent and without him I don't think I'd have persevered.

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Intelligent, engaging and moving

The main character is a young woman studying English Lit in the mid 1980s. Having done that myself, I immediately connected with this novel. She's also a huge fan of Victorian literature. Ditto. The novel follows Madeleine and the men in her life during their undergraduate years and a year or two beyond that. It plunged me back to that time of my life like Proust's madeleine itself. So I absolutely loved it. I also thoroughly enjoyed the plot and character development through the novel.

If you are interested in English lit, literary theory, and being a young student in the '80s, you'll probably love it too. If this world is all a bit alien to you, but you were once young and in love, you may well still enjoy it as an insightful and intelligent novel, beautifully written. The characters really come across as real people, each flawed but beautiful in their own ways.

And did I mention that it is a times very funny?

Note that it is a totally different novel to Middlesex. I loved that too, but this is a very different novel.

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1 person found this helpful

Compelling

Beautifully written, showing a depth of understanding of Christianity and it's critics I have rarely found in a novel, along with humour, and great characterisation. A superb delivery by the narrator, David Pittu. The best audiobook I have heard in a long time.

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David Pittu brings this alive

I have not read either of Eugenides's previous novels but absolutely loved this and didn't want it to finish - feeling immersed in the lives of the protagonist and at times feeling so stressed by events in the novel that I had to turn off. The most stunning bit of writing for me dealt with the theme of mental illness - specifically manic depression - and what that (might) feel like for the individual with the symptoms and what (might) influence(s) the choices they make regarding their medication and their life. I have no idea whether the analysis in the book might be accurate but it made me think a lot.

Whilst it would have taken me far less time to read this myself than listen to the audiobook, David Pittu's rendition is stunning. He really brings the characters to life and imbues each character with their own personality through his use of different voice tones, accents etc. I loved this.

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