Cheating just a smidge, because I finished this one on January 1. But really, it was so depressing that I'd like to leave it in 2005.I've read Anne Tyler before: Back When We Were Grownups. I liked it, but wasn't blown away by it. It annoyed me a little -- I think I found Tyler's dialogue irritating, but I can't remember for sure, I just remember a vague sense of annoyance.
Anyway, The Amateur Marriage tells the story of a boy and girl who fall in love, get married, and have a few kids. That's it. It covers the WHOLE thing, sixty years in their lives. And the first half of the book was good. I especially enjoyed the setting; Tyler is a good writer, I'm not denying that, and she made me feel what is was like to be caught up in the fever of the war. But after all the cute meetings and outside descriptions of the couple, she starts telling everything from their perspective, and man, two more unlikeable people you'll have a hard time meeting.
Almost everyone in the book is unlikeable, and not one of them is interesting enough to make up for it. Add to that one of the most depressing stories I've read in a while, and I just . . . bleh. I didn't like it, is what I'm saying.
Tyler is a spot-on writer as far as letting you understand characters' motivations, and setting the mood of the story, but this one just ended up being too gray for me.
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