Virginia Pye is the author of three historical novels, two set in post-colonial China, and one in late nineteenth-century Boston. In a sense, “Marriage and Other Monuments” is an historical novel too, in that Pye recreates the events and feel of the summer of 2020, a time we all remember and wish we didn’t.
The setting is Richmond, Virginia at the height of the Covid pandemic and during the summer of Black Lives Matter, and the specific turmoil in Richmond, on Monument Avenue, in the heart of the city. Monuments and marriages appear permanent, but it is clear that the gigantic statues of Jeb Stuart, Jackson and Lee are coming down, and the marriages of the two sisters, middle-class, middle-aged, white women, Cynthia and Melissa, may be coming down too.
All the action occurs with a high degree of awareness of Covid. When Melissa goes shopping, she wears latex gloves, a face mask and a plexi-shield. Once safely at home, she leaves the nonperishables in the garage overnight so the virus can dissipate. The she wipes the boxes and cans with rubbing alcohol. Was this all necessary? Who knows? But we did it. Those were stressful times.
In the midst of all this, Cynthia is leaving her husband, Bobby. One might question why. He is guilty of not much except radical immaturity, having grown up in the wealthy Powers family, headed by the authoritarian patriarch, Preston Powers. But now it seems the Powers empire is collapsing and Bobby, a poor businessman, and generally clueless, is losing everything and perhaps even his family home. Cynthia is disgusted. Bobby never talked about the family money problems with her, and she is a certified public accountant.
Cynthia’s sister, Melissa, is also having a hectic summer. She has become dedicated to the social justice movements in Richmond and demonstrates often on behalf of Black Lives Matter and the removal of the Confederate monuments, which, we are reminded, were not even put there until the early twentieth century. She even gets herself arrested and spends the night in jail.
Marshall, Melissa’s husband of 22 years, an African-American, is fed up and suspects Melissa may be unfaithful. Marshall is a successful real estate investor and manager. He is active in programs to feed the poor and in fact very much in touch with his cultural heritage, renovating a Black theatre his father, a musician, owned and performed in, but Marshall is essentially forward-looking and not much concerned about the monuments to the past. He thinks the demonstrations are “performative.”
Marshall breaks up with Melissa. Cynthia leaves Bobby, and the sisters, previously estranged, find themselves living side by side and growing closer while each navigates what might be the end of her marriage.
Some characters seem two-dimensional and some characters’ actions seem arbitrary, but Pye tells a good story, and one reads happily on.
