MONOGAMY by Sue Miller

From the title we can guess this is a book about marriage, and it is.  The union of the diminutive Annie, a photographer, and Graham, a larger-than-life bookstore owner, seems almost too good to be true, but, of course, if everything were copacetic, we wouldn’t have a book.  Our bubble is burst when Graham shares an unflattering secret about himself with a good friend.  The backstory is that Graham was previously married to Frieda, but Frieda never really embraced their agreed-upon open marriage as enthusiastically as Graham did.  Frieda still loves him and never remarries, raising her son Lucas as sort of a close cousin to Annie and Graham’s daughter, Sarah.  In fact, Annie and Frieda become close friends, drawn together by their attachment to Graham.  Their respective children go even further down this path, with Sarah choosing Frieda as her confidante and Lucas similarly confiding in Annie.  Graham is the pivotal character in this semi-blended family and indulges in whatever other appetites strike his fancy.  Annie even wonders whether he has not gobbled her up entirely, but she yields to his wants and needs without complaint.  However, she does not come across as a weak character at all.  In fact, Frieda seems to play that role, never having really broken free of Graham, but in many ways she is the stronger character, having ended her marriage despite her immense love for Graham.  Sue Miller makes this rather ordinary storyline into an extraordinary novel with a hint of suspense and complicated characters.  Graham may be the elephant in the room, but the two women carry this novel, navigating their way around their love for the same man without ever becoming competitors.  At one point, Frieda does silently rejoice in Annie’s discovery of Graham’s transgressions but doesn’t view it as a victory so much as a balancing of the scale.