THE MARRIAGE PLOT

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides - When reading a book by Eugenides, I always get the feeling that the story is somehow autobiographical, because he gets so into the minds of his characters. One is in the mind of the character, hearing what the character is thinking, almost feeling what the character is feeling. In this case, he lets the reader into the minds of two of the characters, and part way into the mind of a third. Sometimes this book got too into itself for me, like when the characters would think about the books they'd read and mentally review them, and apply them to their lives. This happens a lot in the book, and it's annoying, except Eugenides is such a good writer that you want to keep going on. He even addresses this very thing near the end of the book!
"......was like reading certain difficult books. It was like plowing through late James, or the pages about agrarian reform in Anna Karenina, until you suddenly got to a good part again, which kept on getting better and better until you were so enthralled that you were almost grateful for the previous dull stretch because it increased your eventual pleasure."
Except for me, I'd rather have very little dull stretch and all pleasure. Who wants to wait anymore? He's a very studied, intellectual, clever writer. A good old-fashioned writer's writer with modern subject matter. And at the end, I smiled.