An American Marriage

“You can’t pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.” 

Roy has much to learn. The narrative tracks the tectonic impact of Roy’s incarceration by measuring how it denies him these specific certainties: his family, his sense of home, and his sense of belonging. 

“‘If I didn’t know better, I would think that you were trying to sabotage our marriage, the baby, everything.’ She said it like it was all my fault, as though it were possible to tango alone.” 

Celestial points this out immediately after Roy spoils the romantic mood in the hotel by suddenly spilling the news about his biological father. Celestial’s observation raises the troubling question of how stable the marriage is even before Roy’s arrest.  

“Memory is a queer creature, an eccentric curator.” 

Before Celestial shares her recollections of Roy’s arrest and trial, she reassures us that her memory has not obscured those recollections, nor has what has since happened between her and Roy colored the clarity of her memory. This, she tells us, is what happened.