A Great Marriage

September 2, 2024
In this satisfying outing from Mayes (Under the Tuscan Sun), two young lovers’ whirlwind wedding plans are waylaid by a consequential mistake and tragic circumstances. Aspiring law student Dara Wilcox meets architect Austin Clarke at a New York City art gallery in October 1994. She’s visiting from Washington, D.C., and he’s in town from London for work. Upon his return to England, he drunkenly hooks up with Shelley, an ex from his Cambridge years, then throws himself into a long-distance relationship with Dara. Those in their circles believe they’ve each found their “soul mates,” and by the following April they’re engaged. Dara’s family, led by her socialite grandmother, plans a lavish wedding, but after Shelley tells Austin she’s pregnant, he comes clean to Dara and she calls off the engagement. Despite a dramatic story line—Shelley turns out to have a blood disorder that could prove fatal in childbirth, and Dara, thinking of the pregnant murder victim played by Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun, compares the couple’s situation to that of the murderer and his unsuspecting lover in the film, played by Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor—the stakes feel relatively low for most of the novel, until a surprising and effective twist offers much to consider about forgiveness and love. Patient readers will be rewarded. Agent: Peter Ginsberg, Curtis Brown.