Anne Tyler, The Amateur Marriage

In a typical “opposites attract” love story, the clash factor usually serves to fan the flames of torrid passion. They fight, they pine, they end up in bed. Repeat until one of them dies. Nothing is quite this simple in Anne Tyler’s reality. The Minneapolis-born author’s sixteenth novel, The Amateur Marriage, focuses on the Antons, a Baltimore couple whose unwavering disdain for each other plagues three generations with grievance and heartache. It’s early in WWII when their relationship begins, innocently enough, with the impulsive Pauline staggering into Michael’s family shop, injured from one of her crazy stunts. Cupid hits them with an electric case of love at first sight, followed by a shotgun marriage, three children, and thirty years of wedded misery. Tyler’s often bleak storylines are ameliorated by her Sahara-dry humor and detail. But the genuine sentiment between hubby and wife that seeps in throughout the story—followed by the fact that they just can’t make it work—might leave the average reader frustrated by Tyler’s uncharitable conceit that love doesn’t always conquer all.