Listen to the Marriage

Whether readers will enjoy John Jay Osborn's Listen to the Marriage depends entirely on whether they're intrigued or horrified by the idea of reading a novel that is, essentially, a year-long transcript of one couple's marital counseling sessions.
 
If that description sends them screaming, they should stay away. But if it doesn't--and perhaps if they're fans of Esther Perel's popular podcast Where Should We Begin?--they may take Osborn's novel as an intimate opportunity to observe the healing transaction between couple and counselor.
 
Gretchen and Steve are an affluent, attractive, 30-something couple in San Francisco. She's an English professor, he's in finance and they adore their two children. But this perfect image has been fractured by infidelity, communication problems and the corrosive pressure of high-stress careers. The counselor, Sandy, is there to guide them toward understanding, if not reconciliation--and she has heartaches of her own. 
 
Much like real-life counseling, the novel is by turns revelatory and tedious. For every insight, there's a setback, and rare breakthroughs are earned only by slogging through some frustrating, repetitive conversations. The story is told from Sandy's perspective, and so readers experience Gretchen and Steve as she does--within the confines of her office, without external influence or context.
 
In a brief note, Osborn, who wrote the '70s law school classic The Paper Chase, discloses that Listen to the Marriage was inspired by his own experience in marital counseling. His deep appreciation for the counseling process, and for his counselor, is apparent; Sandy's quiet inner nature is even more compelling than Gretchen and Steve's unfolding drama. --Hannah Calkins, writer and editor in Washington, D.C.
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