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The Amateur Marriage
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
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The Amateur Marriage
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Summary
Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple - young, good-looking, made for each other. The moment she walked into his mother's grocery store in the Polish neighbourhood of Baltimore, he was smitten. And in the heat of World War II fervour, they were hastily wed. But they never should have married. Pauline, impulsive and impractical, tumbles hit-or-miss through life; Michael, plodding, cautious, and judgemental, proceeds deliberately. In time their foolish quarrels take their toll.
A 17-year-old daughter disappears, and some years later this fractious pair is forced to rescue her little boy, named Pagan, from drug-infested San Francisco, to take him home and raise him. From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counterculture jargon of the '60s, from the miniskirts to the multilayered apparel of later years, Anne Tyler captures the evocative nuances of everyday life during these decades with such telling precision that every page brings smiles of recognition. Throughout, as each of the competing voices bears witness, we are drawn ever more deeply into the complex entanglements of family life in this marvellous, multifaceted novel - one of Anne Tyler's finest.
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What listeners say about The Amateur Marriage
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Simpson
- 12-07-24
Took me longer to get into this Anne Tyler title than usual
The usual bunch of narcissistic characters are in there, making the reader both love and loath them. This Anne Tyler title took me longer to get into than they usually do, but I was hooked by the end. Brilliant narration too!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 28-06-22
Anne Tyler is a great story teller
Loved Amateur Marriage, Anne Tyler’s characters and story’s are wonderful. I have read many of her books and just now have started listening to other tittles - such a treat to enjoy!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- D carson
- 19-10-23
Tyler perfection for me
A beautiful meandering journey through family life, I read this several years ago and it’s probably my favourite of her books. Just wonderful storytelling
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Susan Rogers
- 16-07-18
Where was the story?
I’ve read several Anne Tyler books so was looking forward to this one, however it felt it just never got going.
When it eventually reached the San Francisco part, I thought ‘phew, it took a long time getting there, but the story is picking up now’ ... except it didn’t. I persevered to the end, but overall felt there was just no story. Beautifully written, but poor story line
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- nicola spiers
- 14-07-22
a difficult book about dark places in family life
Perhaps this is a book that had to be written, but I found it much less engaging and enjoyable and the author's other books. The characters are (almost) all struggling with trauma, and I found many of them dislikable, with this being intentional. The book could be seen is a warning how not to live rather than a story. Maybe on rereading i might notice something more, but I doubt I will because it's so sad.
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