Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.

This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward—with hope and pain—into the future.

I have had this book for at least six years and decided to finally get to it this year thanks to my “read a book that spans five or more years” reading prompt. While I felt the book was missing something, I still enjoyed it and found it to be an emotional and thought-provoking look at love, loyalty, and the heartache caused by systemic injustice.

The story revolves around a married couple, Celestial and Roy. The two met in college thanks to Celestial’s lifelong friend, Andre. Celestial and Roy are deeply in love and have been discussing starting a family since they married. When the two of them travel to Louisiana to visit Roy’s parents, their lives are forever changed. The couple decide to stay at a motel rather than stay with Roy’s parents, and it is at the motel that another guest reports being sexually assaulted by a man who snuck into her room at night. She claims that the man who attacked her was Roy. Celestial knows better. She knows that Roy was snuggled up next to her all night, but thanks to racist cops, Roy is jailed, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to twelve years in prison.

While incarcerated, Celestial and Roy stay in touch through letters, but eventually, their separation causes them to grow apart. When Roy’s lawyer finally gets him out of prison after serving five of his twelve years, Roy returns home, hoping to reconnect with his wife and rekindle their love. But Celestial has moved on with Andre, and now she must decide whether she will continue her new and comfortable life or try to reconcile with Roy.

Overall, I really liked the format of the book. When it begins, we hear only from Roy and Celestial, and once Roy is incarcerated, we shift to letters exchanged between the couple. In the third act, Jones adds Andre to the mix, allowing us to hear from his perspective. By inhabiting each character’s viewpoint, Jones challenges readers to withhold judgment and instead grapple with the difficult choices that all three characters are forced to make. Celestial’s struggle with maintaining loyalty to Roy while discovering her own needs and desires is extremely honest. Roy’s confusion, anger, and pain upon returning to a world that has moved on without him feel raw and authentic. Meanwhile, Andre’s position as the once close friend to both Roy and Celestial and now Celestial’s lover adds a layer of complexity that could have easily slipped into soap opera territory but surprisingly didn’t. This gives us, as readers, a big-picture look at all of their lives, which I really liked.

What I appreciated most about the novel was its ending. The decisions made by Celestial, Roy, and Andre reflect the growth and scars they have accumulated throughout the story. Without giving away too much, the conclusion is both realistic and bittersweet. Rather than resorting to a neatly resolved happy ending, Jones chooses a path that feels authentic to the characters and their experiences.

That said, my one complaint about this book was that I felt a bit distanced from Andre. I felt like he came in too late. We read about him in earlier chapters, and I understood that he had known Celestial from the time they were kids but not much else. When we finally get inside his head, we slowly learn that he had been in love with Celestial even as a kid but never acted on it. He stepped aside so she could be with Roy. That said, I got the impression that Celestial wasn’t interested in him back then, and I wanted to see her fall for him. I wanted to know what made her change her mind toward him. Why did she suddenly fall madly in love with him and choose him over Roy? Was it convenience or did she really love him? Whatever it was, I didn’t feel it, which caused a lack of tension on my part.

In the end, this is both a personal and a political novel, shining a light on the deep, often unseen, emotional toll of systemic injustice. I liked the story and the message; I just wished I had been more invested in Andre. For anyone looking for a rich, character-driven story that explores the complexities of modern relationships and racial inequality, this book is a must-read.

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