Monogamy

Monogamy by Sue Miller

Fiction

2020 Harper

Finished on April 1, 2022

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A brilliantly insightful novel, engrossing and haunting, about marriage, love, family, happiness and sorrow, from New York Times bestselling author Sue Miller.

Graham and Annie have been married for nearly thirty years. A golden couple, their seemingly effortless devotion has long been the envy of their circle of friends and acquaintances. 

Graham is a bookseller, a big, gregarious man with large appetites—curious, eager to please, a lover of life, and the convivial host of frequent, lively parties at his and Annie’s comfortable house in Cambridge. Annie, more reserved and introspective, is a photographer. She is about to have her first gallery show after a six-year lull and is worried that the best years of her career may be behind her. They have two adult children; Lucas, Graham’s son with his first wife, Frieda, works in New York. Annie and Graham’s daughter, Sarah, lives in San Francisco. Though Frieda is an integral part of this far-flung, loving family, Annie feels confident in the knowledge that she is Graham’s last and greatest love.

When Graham suddenly dies—this man whose enormous presence has seemed to dominate their lives together—Annie is lost. What is the point of going on, she wonders, without him? 

Then, while she is still mourning him intensely, she discovers that Graham had been unfaithful to her; and she spirals into darkness, wondering if she ever truly knew the man who loved her.

I was initially concerned about reading another book with a central theme of infidelity, but Sue Miller's exquisite writing pulled me right in to Annie and Graham's lives and I had to force myself to turn off the light and go to sleep. Infidelity does play a significant role in the plot, but I was more interested in the aspects of Annie's grief, particularly in the early days after Graham's death. I found myself thinking about these richly drawn characters as I went about my day, eager to return to the book each night, but not wanting to read too quickly. Images of Graham's bookstore, as well as those of Annie and Graham's home and summer cottage (the lively dinner parties filled with close friends and authors, and solitary moments of a grieving wife, respectively) are vividly depicted with careful attention to detail that pulls the reader in closely with an intimate view of an imperfect, yet loving, marriage.

In the second half of the novel, Graham's adult children and ex-wife give voice to the narrative, offering a glimpse into their relationships with Graham and Annie, but it is Annie's voice (filled with sadness, anger, insecurity and love) that speaks most loudly throughout Monogamy. Her grief is palpable, and I was brought to tears as I read the passage of her phone call to her daughter the morning after Graham's death.

I've only read a few novels by Sue Miller (While I Was Gone, Lost in the Forest, and The Distinguished Guest), but I plan to read more. Much like Anna Quindlen's character-driven works, Miller's nuanced examination of marriage and family elevates what would otherwise be a melodramatic cliche of a spouse's transgression and untimely death. Highly recommend.