If a love story doesn’t end tragically, then it often ends with an implied smooth sailing through the rest of time…

What unfolds throughout a relationship over time? What are the juicy bits, the scary bits, the haunting bits of a marriage – and what decisions should be made based on these? How does marriage as an institution affect love… or even prevent it?
These books and short stories – a mix of contemporary literature alongside books from the early to mid 20th century – tackle questions of how much you can ever know a person and how much you can accurately know yourself when you are in a relationship. Can a love story ever be pro-marriage? Can a marriage ever be pro-love? Let’s discuss!

The Marriage Most Haunting reading group meets on the second Wednesday of each month, September through May, 5:30-7 pm in the Athenæum’s Bound.

Wed, September 11
Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff (2015); “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin (1894)

Wed, October 9
The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton (1913); “Here We Are” by Dorothy Parker (1931)

Wed, November 13
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones (2018); “Headlights” by Samanta Schweblin (2019)

Wed, December 11
The Price of Salt, Patricia Highsmith (1952); Little Women dir. by Greta Gerwig (2019)

Wed, January 8
A Separation, Katie Kitamura (2017)

Wed, February 12
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1985)

Wed, March 12
Stay with Me , Ayobami Adebayo (2017)

Wed, April 9
The Beginners, Anne Serre (2021); The Maytrees, Annie Dillard (2007)

Wed, May 14
Couples, John Updike (1968)

Carolyn Fagan (she/her/hers) has been a member of the Athenaeum and its reading groups since 2022. She has a BA in Creative Writing and English from New York University. Her favorite author is Helen Oyeyemi, but she thinks it is good to regularly interrogate what you believe to be your favorites.