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The Amateur Marriage, published in 2004, is American author Anne Tyler's sixteenth novel.[1]
The plot concerns the marriage of Michael Anton and Pauline Barclay, who meet when he tends to her bloodied brow in his family's grocery store, located in a primarily Eastern European enclave in Baltimore, in December 1941. They marry after Michael is discharged from the Army with a permanent injury caused by a deliberate shot from someone he assaulted.
Michael and Pauline settle in a small apartment above the store, but their widely different temperaments and expectations quickly create dissension in the relationship. He is repressed, controlling, and quiet; she is loud, emotional, and romantic. At Pauline's insistence, they move to the suburbs, where they raise three children: Lindy, George and Karen.
"Lindy, who has always been a stubborn, willful child, becomes increasingly defiant as a teenager, and one day, she just leaves home -- and doesn't return. Her disappearance -- like the abrupt, sometimes violent events that occur in many Tyler novels, propelling heretofore passive characters into a re-evaluation of their lives -- does not bring her parents closer together, but instead results in another round of accusations and recriminations."[2] Lindy runs away to San Francisco in 1960 and becomes involved in the growing drug culture. Eight years later, her parents retrieve Pagan, Lindy's three-year-old son, while Lindy detoxes in a rehab community.
"The lives of the Antons, of course, are not just about fighting; Pauline and Michael are also tied to each other by their children, by shared adventures and, as the years pass, by bonds of memory and inertia. Caring for aging parents, witnessing the illnesses and travails of friends, adapting to a move to the suburbs -- these are all experiences that bind Pauline and Michael to each other, even as their very different temperaments and interests increasingly pull them apart."[2] The slowly crumbling marriage finally dissolves when Michael leaves Pauline on their 30th anniversary. For Michael, convinced that he and Pauline didn't have the faintest idea what they were doing when they married or how to conduct a marriage (that they were "amateurs"), divorce is a salvation. For Pauline, it's a tragedy that leaves her in despair.
The last third of the novel pursues how Michael, Pauline, and their children deal with moving on with the rest of their lives after the divorce. Michael remarries and Pauline forms new friendships but struggles with loneliness and dealing with day-to-day demands of an older single woman living in a big old house.
ミチコ・カクタニはニューヨーク・タイムズの書評で次のように書いている。「『アマチュア・マリッジ』は、長年のタイラーファンにとっては、著者がずっと前に併合され地図化された領域を単に偵察しているだけのように感じられるかもしれないが、心理描写が非常に詳細であるため、物語全体としては彼女の最も説得力のある作品の一つとなっている。家族愛の複雑さ、家族を結びつけ、家族をバラバラにする求心力と遠心力、アメリカの中流階級の生活における極めて平凡な喜びと挫折への賛歌である。」[ 2 ]
ウィリアム・H・プリチャード：「『アマチュア・マリッジ』は…タイラーの最も野心的な作品であり、1941年の真珠湾攻撃から2001年の同日記念日まで、60年以上にわたるアメリカの経験を描いている。…タイラーの巧妙さの一面は、抵抗感のない、方向性が完璧に明確な、人生の表現不可能性を示唆するために比喩的なジェスチャーを駆使しない文章を書く能力にある。しかし、そのような文章は美しく正確であり、多くの場合、きらめくユーモアの筋がある。…タイラーの登場人物とその哀愁に対する把握も同様にいたずらっぽいが、その焦点は揺るぎなく、間違いがない。この本はまた、いたずらよりも深いレベルにも触れている…小説の最後の3分の1は、（章のタイトルの1つにあるように）世界は終わらないことを証明することに費やされている。悲劇は大きな間違いが犯され、その代償が支払われた後に終わるが、喜劇は献身的にその道を進み続ける。」誰もが必然的に間違っていることを示すため。」[ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]