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A review by dianaj23
Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage by Dani Shapiro
4.0
This is a beautiful, engaging back-and-forth into the author's marriage and my first encounter with her work. Shapiro relates different events from from marriage of 18 years; it is her third marriage and the only one she didn't feel the need to get out of. Across the pages, she both marvels and grits her teeth at the longevity, always afraid of the outcome.
This marriage has a story book beginning: coup-de-foudre turned into a whirlwind romance then turned into the marriage-house-child trio. Two married artists and all that this entails. The good, the bad and the ugly. Shapiro has a gift for coating even the worst parts in honey, to make you feel that she will pull out of whatever bad situation. And still, the paradox is that, at times, you read it like she thinks of it: like an impending doom is hanging just above their heads, waiting to destroy them.
It's a book that speaks of the delicate balancing act that two people engage in for every day of their marriage. About satisfactions and the delusions. It's also a book about what time can give to us (and rob from us) and the pondering over it once we reach a certain age and try to reconcile all the selves that have inhabited the same body.
Reading this as a still-newly married woman gives me hope that the good things still last, that two people living together makes live a bit better for each of them.
This marriage has a story book beginning: coup-de-foudre turned into a whirlwind romance then turned into the marriage-house-child trio. Two married artists and all that this entails. The good, the bad and the ugly. Shapiro has a gift for coating even the worst parts in honey, to make you feel that she will pull out of whatever bad situation. And still, the paradox is that, at times, you read it like she thinks of it: like an impending doom is hanging just above their heads, waiting to destroy them.
It's a book that speaks of the delicate balancing act that two people engage in for every day of their marriage. About satisfactions and the delusions. It's also a book about what time can give to us (and rob from us) and the pondering over it once we reach a certain age and try to reconcile all the selves that have inhabited the same body.
Reading this as a still-newly married woman gives me hope that the good things still last, that two people living together makes live a bit better for each of them.