Scan barcode
A review by lauraellis
Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939 by Katie Roiphe
3.0
2.5 stars.
I picked up this book mostly because I am interested in a number of the people she wrote about -- Vera Brittain, Elizabeth von Arnim (because I liked the move based on her book, Enchanted April), and Vanessa Bell. The author sets out to examine seven marriages in the period between WWI and WWII in Great Britain (mostly), whose participants were trying to figure out how to live in a modern marriage -- which appears to be equated to involving other people, physically, emotionally, or both. In the Epilogue, Ms. Roiphe writes about how excited (mesmerized) she was to read the writings of these very literate people as they tried to live and understand how to love in an era and a social set that despised hypocrisy and lies and appearances, and put honesty and "the heart wants what it wants" above all else. None of these people appear to have been able to make it work, and Ms. Roiphe fails, somehow, to convey to this reader what made the sought-after people sought-after. Moreover, since she follows each of these couples until one or both dies, and pulls apart (as best she can) their love lives and their inner most thoughts, none of them seem to have been successful in their relationships and most of them don't come out very well. (Of course, she doesn't have much kind to say about Vera Brittain, whom I admire greatly, so is definitely influencing me.)
I know what unhappiness and loneliness are. I'm looking for the secret to a relationship that brings a good measure of happiness to the parties.
This book might read better if one read it in seven chunks, instead of straight through, as I did.
I picked up this book mostly because I am interested in a number of the people she wrote about -- Vera Brittain, Elizabeth von Arnim (because I liked the move based on her book, Enchanted April), and Vanessa Bell. The author sets out to examine seven marriages in the period between WWI and WWII in Great Britain (mostly), whose participants were trying to figure out how to live in a modern marriage -- which appears to be equated to involving other people, physically, emotionally, or both. In the Epilogue, Ms. Roiphe writes about how excited (mesmerized) she was to read the writings of these very literate people as they tried to live and understand how to love in an era and a social set that despised hypocrisy and lies and appearances, and put honesty and "the heart wants what it wants" above all else. None of these people appear to have been able to make it work, and Ms. Roiphe fails, somehow, to convey to this reader what made the sought-after people sought-after. Moreover, since she follows each of these couples until one or both dies, and pulls apart (as best she can) their love lives and their inner most thoughts, none of them seem to have been successful in their relationships and most of them don't come out very well. (Of course, she doesn't have much kind to say about Vera Brittain, whom I admire greatly, so is definitely influencing me.)
I know what unhappiness and loneliness are. I'm looking for the secret to a relationship that brings a good measure of happiness to the parties.
This book might read better if one read it in seven chunks, instead of straight through, as I did.