Week Four Discussion - Matriomony

This Week's Questions:

Novels about relationships are usually the terrain of women, but Matrimony is written by a man. How much does the gender of the author influence the narrative?

Week Three Discussion - Matrimony

This Week's Questions:

How does the stress of choosing schooling and careers affect these couples?

Post your comments below.

Week Two Discussion - Matrimony

This Week's Questions:
Mia and Julian were prompted to get married because of her mom's cancer, and then Mia's own cancer scare seems to push them into the decision to have children. Is this a good way to run a marriage? What is Henkin telling us about adult decisions and consequences?

Week One Discussion - Matrimony

Matrimony by Josuah Henkin

ABOUT THIS BOOK It's 1987, and Julian Wainwright, aspiring writer and waspy son of New York City old money, meets beautiful, Jewish Mia Mendelsohn in the laundry room at Graymont College. So begins a relationship that spans twenty years, as it takes Julian and Mia across the country and through the depths of family tragedy, love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith.

This week's Questions:

Discuss the parent-child relationships in the novel. How much are the lives of Julian, Mia, and Carter a rejection of their parents' lives? Despite how much they try to get away from the patterns of their parents, are they successful? Also consider Professor Chesterfield as a replacement father figure for Julian. What role does genetics play in the parent-child relationships?