Not that I have any scientific data on this but, honestly, will we ever get tired of love stories?I doubt it.

So this week, we take a look at The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.

First off, let me just say that Eugenides peppered his story with frequent cow patties. If that kind of thing is a deal-breaker for you, stop reading right now so you don’t get tempted by the worth-it parts of his story.

Still with me?

Ok then.

We start at Brown University in the early ‘80s.

It’s Madeleine Hanna’s graduation day. She’s beautiful and privileged (Aren’t they all, at Brown?), the daughter of a college president back in New Jersey.

Mitchell Grammaticus, also graduating, loves Madeleine.

Madeleine’s parents, in town for ceremonies, see Mitchell and invite him into the family circle for the weekend. Join us for breakfast, Mitchell?

Madeleine bears up under the strain. Mitchell is a bore. That her parents can’t see it is another strike against him, and them too.

And why would she give Mitchell the time of day when things are starting to work out between her and Leonard?

Before Leonard, a bad run of boyfriends convinced Madeleine to swear off dating. But then she saw him across the room in her Semiotics class, and soon she caught herself dressing just a little better on class days.

Leonard is handsome, elusive and troubled. Madeleine catches on to the handsome and elusive parts right away. As for troubled, she’s so grateful when Leonard finally needs her, she misses the red flags flying right in her face.

Isn’t that how it is at that age? I would love to go back and navigate my way through singledom, knowing what I know now. But that isn’t the way it works, darn it. Nobody gets to be wise and cool without making the same missteps Madeleine, Mitchell and Leonard make throughout The Marriage Plot.

Maybe I’m making this book sound like a lightweight, breathless romance novel. Not so. This story dwells less on the excitement of gazes across the room and more on the wrong assumptions behind those gazes.

From scenes of the professors, marching in full academic regalia on commencement day, to Leonard’s friends warning Madeleine away from him, to Mitchell, loading up on travelers cheques before he escapes to another continent, Marriage Plot sets the reader in a front row seat to watch the drama of kids becoming adults.

Can Mitchell’s flight through Paris and Greece and the destitute streets of Calcutta make him forget Madeleine?

And what will it take for Madeleine to see clearly?

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buttermilk wheat rolls

Here’s an easy batch of rolls where the bread machine did all the work. I can’t believe I’m admitting that I made whole wheat rolls, since whole wheat bread was the bane of my youth.

Just so you know, I still prefer pasty white bread. But every once in a while, we slip these Buttermilk Wheat Rolls onto the dinner table.