Review: Atomic Marriage

Atomic Marriage by Curtis Sittenfeld
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is an Audible Original that they offered free to subscribers as one of the January picks. I didn't realize it was an incredibly short story until after my selection. Curtis Sittenfeld is usually a good bet but this one fell a little short (no pun intended) of the mark.

An evangelical businessman wrote a set of rules that supposedly saved his marriage. He expanded on his idea and got a book published. That book became incredibly popular and was optioned by a Hollywood movie studio. The studio wanted to include a gay couple in the movie, the businessman said "no way" so they sent a representative to try to convince him otherwise.

Straightforward so far, but then there is a really cheesy and uncomfortable twist to the story when the Hollywood rep travels to the businessman's home in Alabama. The ending was not terribly satisfying. Perhaps the author was trying to make a commentary about the difficulty of marriage, or how even hypocrites can get it right sometimes. Or I'm not sure. Just wasn't my cup of tea.

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