Oh, to Love One's Opposite: "The Marriage of Opposites" by Alice Hoffman

As the days become shorter and the air is crisp, my level of crazy is much more apparent. This means my reading patterns change. I always go for the happy, beachy reads, but during the fall and winter, I like to mix it up and throw in some darker-themed books. Sometimes I regret that decision while reading late at night, alone in my bed; but overall I like it.  This week's book was one that I thought might be a little darker than it was, but it made up for it in emotions and themes. "The Marriage of Opposites" by Alice Hoffman was a book that left me speechless at times and pondering about loving one's true opposite.

Earlier this year I read another book by Alice Hoffman that totally blew my hair back with its dark and twisted theme about a museum of social misfits. (CLICK HERE FOR POST) Alice Hoffman is known for her magical, gothic, dark plots so I expected "The Marriage of Opposites" to have those characteristics. I wouldn't say it was twisted, but it definitely addressed really hard issues such as loving outside of one's race or social station.

The setting for "The Marriage of Opposites" is the island of St. Thomas. The main character is Rachel Pomie. She comes from a family of wealth and good fortune overall. However, she dreams of living her life in a much different way than her parents expect. She has the passion of an artist and spends her nights on the island dreaming of Paris and the many adventures she could be experiencing there.  In spite of her dreaming, she is still forced to abide by her parents' wishes and finds herself married to a wealthy, but much older widower (with children) and she is young and wondering what she's let herself undertake.  This is the beginning of a long chain of events that will tug at your heart strings from every turn. This was the section of the book that I could not put down. I was also sicker than hell so reading 100 pages in a day was about the best I could do for myself.

In Rachel's course to be different she has befriended a beautiful soul who is a different race than her. She is soon faced with the awful reality that race matters at this time in history and she watches her friend suffer a great loss at the hand of her own mother's influence. Nothing reminds a person of their station quite like forbidden love and Rachel promises herself that she will always support her friend and love her for who she is as a human, not based on her skin color.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the beautiful imagery the author used to describe the surroundings. At times I felt like I was on St. Thomas with each of the characters. Alice Hoffman is a champion at imagery and the other book I read was just as spectacular in this department.  She also describes her characters very well so you can have a mental picture of who they are and what they might look like.

I will be honest, this book was a tiny bit disappointing at about the half-way point. Rachel's life takes a very substantial shift and she finds herself in a beautiful love affair after her first husband dies suddenly. I felt like this aspect of the story was so important and didn't get nearly as much plot development as it could have. While it was a bit steamy, it also brought out some really important themes including going for the one you love even when the whole town thinks you're crazy and sticking close to those who matter most. I felt like it skipped over really great opportunities to dive in to these subjects more and moved right along in the plot so the book could span multiple decades in under 375 pages.  In spite of my picky plot expectations, the author did a spectacular job at tying all the loose ends and providing closure for all of the main characters. I definitely didn't lose interest in this book, I just wanted it to be written a little different. Again, a bibliophile snobbery alert for you.

My recommended reading group would be age 18 and above.  It's a solid PG-13 read with reference to sex and adult themes.

The moral of the story: Loving our opposite can be seriously painful at times, but then the heavens part and it's pure magic and we forget about the messy stuff.

Happy reading, my amazing, geeky lovelies!
-R

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