What readers think of The Marriage Plot, plus links to write your own review.

The Marriage Plot is a very different book to Eugenides’ Middlesex, but very good – a deeper, more complex read. This may not be a book you’ll love from page one but if you give it time, and don’t let yourself get put off by the pseudo-literary pretensions of the characters (first year students at Brown) when you first meet them, you’ll find depth, humor and characters who, despite their best efforts to be unlovable at times, you will care about.

Didn't like this nearly as much as I thought I would. There was quite a lot of talking about literature and theory as well as criticism so one would think I would devour it. This was so not the case, it was rather dry and the characters were not very likable and did an awful lot of whining. So tired of the elusive Leonard and his deep intellectual thoughts and the pining, whining Madeline.

This novel is not what I was expecting. A review on the back cover states that this is "a grand romance in the Austen tradition." I didn't find that to be true, but I certainly found elements (like vulgar language and explicit sex) that Jane Austen mercifully never included in her work. I found the sections dealing with philosophy and literary theory very tedious and felt they did not add anything to the story. I never felt involved with the characters or cared about them. I did like the author's use of various characters' points of view to fill in details of events included earlier in the book.