The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

Pauline and Michael seem like the perfect couple. When she walks into his mother’s Baltimore grocery store, he is smitten, and World War II fervor sweeps them into a hasty marriage. But their differences soon prove impossible to ignore: Pauline is impulsive and impractical; Michael is cautious, deliberate, and judgmental. As the years pass, their quarrels deepen rather than fade. Nearly thirty years later, even becoming loving caregivers to their young grandson, Pagan, whom they rescue from Haight-Ashbury, cannot bridge the divide. Pauline believes their rifts can always be patched; Michael finds them unbearable. From the wartime grocery store to the counterculture of the sixties and beyond, Anne Tyler captures everyday life with warmth and precision. Through competing voices and telling details, this wise, perceptive novel explores the tensions of marriage and the complex entanglements of family. Mass paperback, like new.