FINISHED: The Marriage Plot (minor spoilers)

I finished The Marriage Plot on Saturday night, but needed a while to let myself mull over it.

I loved it, I absolutely sped through it. And when I got to the end, much to the amusement of DB, it got so emotionally intense that I had to put it down 3 pages before the end and go back to it later.

The story follows three Brown University students through their graduation and beyond, Madeleine, Leonard and Mitchell entangled in a love-triangle, although not all of them realise the triangle exists.

Mitchell was by far my favourite narrator and character, mostly because I empathized with him most, his drawing to theology despite his lack of belief, his introspection. I was at my most comfortable when the book was being narrated by him.
Madeleine, although I started off thinking she was a brat, grew on me massively, we start the book not knowing why she wakes up on the day of Graduation hung over and mortified, and as the book reflects on previous events, whilst running chronologically at the same time (an impressive feat for the author, fantastically done) I decided I liked her a lot more.
I found the book uncomfortable to read when Leonard was the narrator, but I feel that was Eugenides' intention although it would be a spoiler to reveal why.

It made me laugh and it made me cry, often very close together, but it has stayed with me, possibly as I find myself approaching the time of my life described by the characters in the novel.

'The Marriage Plot' was very different to both of the previous Eugenides books, but one thing remains the same, Jeffrey Eugenides' prose is to me, the most beautiful to read anywhere in contemporary fiction, I just hope he keeps it up.

9/10