The Anatomy of Marriage: The 10 Most Dysfunctional Married Couples in Literature
Martin and Caroline Dressler
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, Steven Millhauser
“Do you believe that the actor on the stage is really a villain? Let me ask you something else. If he isn’t a villain, then is he a liar?”
What is a man to do when he’s intellectually attracted to one woman, but physically attracted to her sister? Marry the better looking sister, right? Wrong. Obviously. But that’s what happens (among many, many other things) in Steven Millhauser’s amazing novel, set in turn-of-the-century Manhattan. Martin marries Caroline—who is beautiful, yes, but also distant, withdrawn and sexually frigid (hat trick!)—and their marriage is completely unfulfilling and Caroline drifts into a state of practical insanity and it’s all very fucked up and the lesson is clearly not to marry anyone because of how they look. But also, maybe just don’t get married at all if you’re a workaholic who will never care about any person as much as you care about your job.