'The Amateur Marriage' by Anne Tyler

Fiction - paperback; Vintage (exclusive edition for Red magazine); 306 pages; 2005.

What is it that makes a marriage work? How much give and how much take is acceptable? Should each partner have a diametrically opposed personality to balance things out? Or is it better to be compatible in temperament and attitude?

What happens to the children if things go wrong? And to what extent does the state of our parent's marriage reflect our own personalities and attitudes?

These questions -- and so many more -- form the backbone of this astonishingly perceptive and near-perfect novel by Anne Tyler.