{The Dirty Book Club} February Book!

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Today is the official kick-off to February, which means a new book selection for The Dirty Book Club: I Married You for Happiness, Lily Tuck

I Married you for Happiness February The Dirty Book Club

Throughout Lily Tuck’s career, she’s been praised by critics for her crisp, lean language and sensuous explorations of exotic locales and complex psychologies. From Siam to Paraguay and beyond, Tuck inspires readers to travel into unfamiliar realms, and her newest novel is no exception.
 
Slender, potent, and utterly engaging, I Married You For Happiness combines marriage, mathematics, and the probability of an afterlife to create Tuck’s most affecting and riveting book yet.“His hand is growing cold, still she holds it” is how this novel that tells the story of a marriage begins. The tale unfolds over a single night as Nina sits at the bedside of her husband, Philip, whose sudden and unexpected death is the reason for her lonely vigil. Still too shocked to grieve, she lets herself remember the defining moments of their long union, beginning with their meeting in Paris. She is an artist, he a highly accomplished mathematician—a collision of two different worlds that merged to form an intricate and passionate love. As we move through select memories—real and imagined—Tuck reveals the most private intimacies, dark secrets, and overwhelming joys that defined Nina and Philip’s life together.

 

This month’s choice was suggested to the book club by yours truly (we all bring our suggestions, then the members vote). I wanted to read this book for several reasons:

  1. It’s a National Book Award winner
  2. It was listed as one of Publisher’s Weekly’s “Best Books of 2011
  3. It’s not chic lit (nothing against chic lit, I love it! I just wanted to try something different)
  4. According to reviews on amazon, the book is full of symbolism that may not be evident unless the reader is willing to look for the deeper meaning.

I’ll be honest, I feel confident that some people in my own book club will either hate this book, or be bored. But I wanted to challenge the group to reach a little deeper this month. I also think many of us will be moved by the beautiful writing, the simplistic honesty of the story, and the deep intimacy shared by a husband and wife.

Read Along with The Dirty Book Club…

As always, we welcome everyone to read along with us. Some of you have set up your own hometown “chapters” of the DBC, and I think that is just amazing! Feel free to send any photos or blogs you do, and I will try and incorporate them into my DBC blogs. It’s an online book club for women! How FABULOUS!

Speaking of which…Hilary in Louisiana has been reading along with the DBC! She even posted a blog about January’s book, What Alice Forgot, so be sure to check it out! And if you’re in the Baton Rouge area, perhaps y’all should get in touch and read together! Just an idea…

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