The tragedy in An American Marriage is not in the dissolution of a perfect union, but instead in the way the criminal justice system can tear apart a family, tear apart an individual from their own innate self, all because of a wrongful conviction. This novel is a tragedy told through letters; a part-epistolary novel that shows the frailty of maintaining a connection through the tenuous medium of postal correspondence, while also showing us that even the strongest of bonds can fray.

(originally published on inthemargins.ca)