A review by linneak
Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939 by Katie Roiphe

2.0

An extremely interesting and unique read, recommended/lent to me by my sister. I feel like I can safely say that I've never read a book like this before, and because the topic is so original, I might never again. Although to be honest, I can only praise its uniqueness and originality for so long before making my most important point in that it didn't thrill me. Firstly, I found it extremely hard to get into. I consider myself to be a pretty fast reader, and yet a fairly short and seemingly simple book such as this took me much longer than I'm happy to admit. Well, it'll show on my profile how long it took me to read it, so I guess I am admitting it. Unhappily. I can volunteer for sure that I think Katie Roiphe has an elegant and thoughtful literary voice, but you can easily get lost in it due to its saturation in philosophy and eloquence. Which in short is my way of saying too much of a good thing. The pace quickened after the introduction when she got into the portraits themselves, and I sincerely appreciated their clarity, vividness, structure and length. I also found the dynamics and arrangements in each of the featured relationships to be very interesting, and maybe even more so because of the time period in which they took place. I think maybe I didn't enjoy it as much because of my lack of familiarity with the characters involved, combined with a lack of expertise in social dynamics of the times. I also found it extremely difficult to relate to any of the characters. I understand that's not necessarily the point of a work of this nature, but I feel like it did contribute to me finding some stories more tame and tired than others. For example, even though I didn't identify or sympathize with anyone, I was really engaged in the story of H.G. Wells and his wife Jane... because he was a flaming BEEEEEEEEPPPP to her! Sigh. One thing is for sure though: this is a great read for anyone either experiencing difficulties within their romantic relationships or who are in trouble of taking their romantic relationships for granted- you can be certain (as I am) when you're finished reading that your love life doesn't suck as much as these peoples' did.