A Great Marriage
A Novel
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4.0 • 69 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
When a perfect wedding is called off just days before the big event, it sends two people—and their families—reeling, in this poignant novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun and Women in Sunlight
“A moving immersion in love and loss.”—People
A great marriage is an elusive thing, and only a few know the secret to making one.
Dara Willcox, in New York for a weekend, meets Austin Clarke at an art gallery. If love at first sight can happen, it happens to them. These two vivid, ambitious people are on different courses—he’s British, working temporarily in New York. She’s from North Carolina, set on law school. They don’t care. They will make their lives together happen. At their April engagement dinner at Dara’s family home, her mother, Lee, sets a beautiful table, and the family and close friends gather to celebrate. Rich, Dara’s father, raises a toast. Suddenly, Lee spills the wine, a brilliant red stain splashing onto the tablecloth and onto Austin.
Days later, Austin hears unsettling news from London that wrecks their plans. Dara abruptly cancels the wedding. She refuses to reveal the reason, not even to her best friends or her parents or grandmother, disrupting their family tradition of openness. As everyone knows, Lee and Rich have a great marriage, and Charlotte, her grandmother, had a colossal one, to the late Senator Mann. Charlotte literally wrote the book on the subject: She’s the author of international bestsellers on what makes a good or possibly a great marriage.
While Dara escapes to California and Indigo Island, South Carolina, Austin, back in London, faces a major tragedy, the consequences of which are life-altering. But it’s Lee, Dara’s mother, whose impulsive visit to London alters their fate.
With her signature warmth, humor, and incisive style, beloved author Frances Mayes creates a multigenerational probe into the complexity of love and the great mystery ride of marriage. A novel of casual choices and fateful consequences, A Great Marriage introduces two unforgettable families and the arrival of a stranger who rearranges their futures.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this satisfying outing from Mayes (Under the Tuscan Sun), two young lovers' whirlwind wedding plans are waylaid by a consequential mistake and tragic circumstances. Aspiring law student Dara Wilcox meets architect Austin Clarke at a New York City art gallery in October 1994. She's visiting from Washington, D.C., and he's in town from London for work. Upon his return to England, he drunkenly hooks up with Shelley, an ex from his Cambridge years, then throws himself into a long-distance relationship with Dara. Those in their circles believe they've each found their "soul mates," and by the following April they're engaged. Dara's family, led by her socialite grandmother, plans a lavish wedding, but after Shelley tells Austin she's pregnant, he comes clean to Dara and she calls off the engagement. Despite a dramatic story line—Shelley turns out to have a blood disorder that could prove fatal in childbirth, and Dara, thinking of the pregnant murder victim played by Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun, compares the couple's situation to that of the murderer and his unsuspecting lover in the film, played by Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor—the stakes feel relatively low for most of the novel, until a surprising and effective twist offers much to consider about forgiveness and love. Patient readers will be rewarded.
Customer Reviews
A Great Marriage
Loved it so much! Frances Mayes inspires me to look things up and read (or reread) other literature to enhance her stories. Having read all her previous works, I really enjoyed this one. Much needed in our world today.
Delightful
Heartwarming ,and a fun read, what a lovely story of love and family.
A Great Marriage
I read this book because I read Frances Mayes’ book on Tuscany and really liked it. This book was quite sentimental and gooey. The ending was predictable and the stories of the characters rather bland. Not a good recommendation.