My introduction to Sue Miller was nearly 20 years ago, when I read The Good Mother. It was one of those domestic dramas that grab something in your heart and won’t let go. Since then, I’ve read some others, but can’t recall them, so I was definitely hoping for another heart-grabber when I got a copy of Monogamy from Harper Collins and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
A married couple of nearly thirty years, Graham and Annie seemed too good to be true: he owns and runs a bookstore in Cambridge, MA and she is a photographer. They have frequent parties at their home (often tied in with author visits, so it tends to be a literary crowd), and they have a varied circle of friends, including Graham’s first wife (who has become a very close friend of Annie’s).
Graham and his first wife have an adult son who lives in New York, and together Graham. and Annie have an adult daughter who lives in San Francisco. Although she didn’t rely on her photography to make a living, Annie has longed to get back to her career, and when she gets a gallery show after six years off, she is worried that her best years as a photographer may be over.
On the eve of her show, Graham suddenly dies in the best way: unexpectedly, in his sleep. Although she has been accused of being cold (her sister telling her at one point, “What you are is cold. You’re a cold little bitch.”), Annie is completely undone when left alone. When she discovers that he was not monogamous, she is totally devastated. There is a lot of opportunity for the reader to ponder the importance of monogamy, the nature of relationships, grief, truth, and deception, and whether it is possible to really know someone, even the one person you think you know completely.
It will be an excellent book club choice, enhanced by the way the story is told from various points of view. Some will think Annie should just snap out of it, some will think she was married to a beast, some will wonder at her choice, not long after Graham’s death, to seek out a man with whom she came close to having her own fling when they were at an artists’ retreat some years ago, and some will just think they are self-absorbed pseudo-intellectuals living an upper-middle-class white suburban existence. In any case, it was thought-provoking and a good escape from pandemic lockdown. Four stars.