Community Library Notes
“Monogamy” by Sue Miller is the story of Annie. She’d been married to Alan (when she was young) and divorced when she realized she didn’t like him. She left everything with him except the old Rolleiflex camera. Then she met Graham.
She goes to a bookstore party, is excited by the crowd, the wine and the way he laughs with her. That night in bed, she realizes he had interested her with his size, his barrel chest, his appreciation of her. After five months she moves in with him. The sex is good, happy sex. Within a year they are married.
Graham thinks of his first wife, Freida and how she left with their son Lucas. It had been Graham’s fault. They’d had an open marriage. Graham liked it; Freida hadn’t. He’s been faithful in his marriage to Annie, until Rosemary came along. She was romantic, lonely, in need. He stays friends with Freida.
In the morning, Annie and he talk about the party they are hosting the next night for a new book. In the past, parties had been fun with lots of food, wine, and dancing. No dancing now. Annie is a photographer and has a show soon at a gallery. Graham forgot about it. In her 30s she had two photo shows: one about the ER at Boston City Hospital with doctors’ faces and hands, and open wounds, the second of her mother with Alzheimer’s. She had won a grant for this. After a hiatus she works on a book of events at the bookshop called “Memoir With Bookshop.”
Graham meets his friend John for lunch. He tells him about his affair with Rosemary. John has never cheated on his wife. Graham loves excitement. Now he wants out. Graham feels ease and affection with John. Rosemary calls him at the bookstore. He tells her they have to talk. He has laid the groundwork for ending the affair. Graham walks to Rosemary’s house, Bill will watch the store. He tells her he can’t come anymore. At first he’s sorry, then he feels joy, a release. He buys a bouquet of wilted flowers for Annie. Graham says he is too tired for sex that night.
The next morning she feels something is off. Graham lies in his bed, his body cold, his eyes slightly open. She gently closes them. His body is empty. The EMTs come and carry him downstairs. Annie phones the doctor and the funeral home. Later she calls their daughter Sarah, and then Freida who is still their friend. She calls the bookstore and tells Emily to cancel the dinner party but to go ahead with the reading.
Sarah is in bed with Thomas when she gets the call from her mother. She tells him of her father’s death. Thomas has written a book on Asian Americans. She loves his brown skin and dark eyes. Freida and Sarah were close, went to drawing classes together, and Annie helped Freida with teenage Lucas. When Freida calls Lucas to tell him about his father’s death, he feels anger at the way her grief will take precedence over his loss.
John comes over for the planned dinner party and brings flowers. He is shocked at the news and tells Annie that Graham loved her, and to remember that, no matter what. She wonders at that phrase. When Lucas and Sarah arrive at her house, they tell Annie she must plan an event at the bookstore. She wants to be in charge, but isn’t anymore. She feels like the elderly woman next door; useless.
She decides to go to their tiny cottage in Vermont alone. It’s what she needs. She stays five days, reads all the books there, and sleeps a lot. Sarah and Lucas come to help her scatter Graham’s ashes in the garden. Graham had said it would be bone meal for the plants. The memorial event at the bookstore is wonderful, Graham would have loved it. Annie sees Rosemary sobbing in his study and she feels stupid not to have known about his affair. She feels insulted, rage, jealousy. Freida had known about it as Graham told her everything. She returns to the cottage in Vermont but everything is dried out, rotting.
Two years later, the family has Thanksgiving at Freida’s house, then a light supper the following night at Annie’s. Lucas tells her that Ian Pedersen is going to read from his newest book at the bookstore, why doesn’t she come. She had known Pedersen at MacDowell Colony when she went to work on her photography years ago. She had been angry at Graham for refusing to move to New York for her career and so she went for two weeks. She and Pedersen had become friendly and were together the entire time. Other attendees there had noticed them. Now, she goes to the reading at the bookstore. Pedersen suggests a drink together after he reads. She agrees and soon in their conversation realizes he has her mixed up with a woman he had slept with at MacDowell. She sees she was not memorable after all. She leaves quickly and goes home to her cat that the elderly woman next door had bequeathed her. On the icy sidewalk, she slips and falls, breaking her arm. After surgery in the hospital, she thinks Graham is coming to pick her up to take her home.
Does Annie meet Pedersen again? Does she remember that she loves Graham? Does she remain friends with Freida? Author Miller was awarded a Guggenheim and a Radcliff Fellowship. She has taught fiction at several universities. Her stories are about real and tender families. Find this one in the fiction room at the Mendocino Community Library when it reopens.