What is marriage about? Is it about companionship? Is it about unwavering trust? Is it about a bond like ’till death do us apart’? Is it about respect? Is it about unconditional love? And does it come with an expiration date? All these thoughts rumbled my mind after I finished reading Taylor Jenkins Reid’s epistolary novella ” Evidence of the Affair”.
One more question which perturbed me was, can a love relationship be stronger than the bonds of marriage ? Rather can it bloom without any expectations and its fragrance reinstate the faith in the purity of love for eternity?
Juggling with so many thoughts in my mind I finished this beautiful book which revolves around the complexities of relationships.
Set in the 1970s, one day David receives a letter from a stranger called Carrie Allsop who claims that her husband Ken has been having an extra marital affair with David’s wife Janet. Carrie states that she has evidence of this relationship which she unearthed from the romantic letters which Janet and her husband Ken exchanged and requests David to send the letters of Ken so that she can find the real truth. Carrie receives a reply from David after many days in which David states that he never believed Carrie’s claims initially but after witnessing Janet talking in a hushed tone with a stranger over telephone, his suspicions were confirmed.
Thus, Carrie and David’s relationship starts over an exchange of string of letters. What slowly evolves from this exchange; is a beautiful bond of friendship and trust. David and Carrie start confiding in each other and the pain which both of them felt due to the betrayal from their respective partners. Both of them searched for comfort in each other’s letters and the courage to face and tolerate their spouses. Eventually they meet each other and over a period of few meetings what had evolved as a harmless friendship slowly transforms into an unbreakable bond of faith, love, respect and admiration. While David and Carrie started finding warmth in this new found relationship, they also discovered that Janet and Ken were planning to leave them and start a new life.
But in a sudden twist of circumstances Janet abandon this idea and decide to go back to David and continue with her marriage inspite of continuous persuasion from Ken.
This change in situation also brought David and Carrie’s relation to a standstill. Though David sent many letters to Carrie but he never received any reply. After many months David received a reply from Carrie with stark revelations. The letter stated that she had left Ken finally and she was living with her parents and her new born daughter Margaret. The letter expressed her gratitude towards David for instilling her with courage and the faith in herself and most importantly with the gift of a child which Ken could never give her and instead she was always blamed and victimized for not being able to bear a child.
This was a beautiful novella with so many layers of emotions running through the letters. The structure of this novella is brilliant. The conversational tone of the novella made me feel being present at the moment and witnessing Carrie and David at the moment. The highlight of this book was it’s climax which was so hard hitting and such a fantastic twist in the tale.
I have given this book 4 stars out of 5
Thank you @islejazz for being my book muse and giving me such brilliant recommendation. Love you.