Author Virginia Pye’s new book, her fifth, looks at how secrets within a marriage erode trust, and how for couples to evolve, they must be true to who they are, both as individuals and as members of an imperfect society.
What sets “Marriage and Other Monuments” apart from other relationship novels is that it takes place in Richmond during the summer of 2020. For those of us who lived through that transformational season of unrest, it’s a compelling reminder of just how central the city was during a time of national reckoning. The book was published on Feb. 10, and Pye will speak at the ICA and the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen the following week.
Pye, a Richmond resident for 17 years, moved to the Boston area in 2015, where she remained during lockdown. During the early 2000s, she’d written a novel attempting to capture the charm and beauty of Richmond, as well as how its class differences and historic trauma affected her characters.
“Although that book was never published, I had it in mind as I followed the events in Richmond in the summer of 2020,” Pye says of watching live videos of street encounters between protestors and the police. “I wanted to tell a story that respected the city while also delving into marriage at a time of great social change and upheaval.”
For locals, the book reads like a refresher course in the non-stop civil unrest that defined that summer as the monuments finally began to come down. Pye fills the story with references that resonate: locations such as Oregon Hill, Ginter Park, Belle Isle and the Fan, but also specific businesses like Franco’s and Sally Bell’s Kitchen.
When she refers to “families like his who had lived in the West End for generations,” longtime Richmond residents understand exactly who she’s referencing. Only a stickler for accuracy would wince at seeing Libbie Avenue being spelled Libby.
Having been married for almost 40 years. Pye tried to use that knowledge to shape the two marriages in her novel. What seems most crucial for the four main characters —Melissa and Marshall, Cynthia and Bobby— is to be honest, not just with their spouses, but with themselves. “They’re pushed by the events of that dramatic summer to realize ways they’ve been lying to themselves about what they want and who they are,” she says. “They can’t share honestly with their spouse if they’re hiding from their own truth.”
Sisters Melissa and Cynthia aren’t close and don’t particularly want to be. Pye intentionally began the story with the two already on shaky ground, allowing the reader to wonder from the start if they’ll achieve balance again.
Because each chapter is written from the perspective of one of the four characters, the reader comes to know the sisters separately for most of the book, seeing how they frame their growing up experiences differently. Each feels the other doesn’t fully understand the sacrifices she made and both want more from the other and are bitter not to receive it. “In short, they’re siblings, with all the resentment and, ultimately, love that involves,” says Pye. “Because they do love each other. They just want the other to say it first.”
Pye is quick to say that she was incredibly lucky to have raised her family in Richmond and that it’s a wonderful place to live for many. But she also sees it as a complicated, maddening and beautiful place given the James River and the charming, quirky neighborhoods, each with its own character.
The maddening part, she feels, isn’t unique to Richmond. Rather, it’s the ongoing fallout of America’s original sin, slavery. But unlike many other parts of the country, for decades, Richmond residents didn’t have the luxury of ignoring that history, especially when the monuments were still up. “The drama of their removal brought to the surface that painful past,” Pye says. “My novel tries to write respectfully about characters who lived through that summer, as well as conjuring figures from the historic past.”
That historic past is all over “Marriages and Monuments,” from references to redlined neighborhoods to the glory days of the Deuce, aka Second Street. Central to the story is the evolution of Monument Avenue, perhaps best expressed by Melissa’s husband, Marshall (who is Black). “And these old monuments and this avenue have never been the heart of Richmond. Jackson Ward deserves that honor.”
To which this reader says, amen.
ICA Author RVA series with Virginia Pye on “Marriage and Other Monuments,” will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 5 p.m. with a reception afterwards. RSVP
The following day, Pye will give a talk at the Cultural Arts Center at Glenn Allen, Thursday, Feb. 19 at 11 a.m. Tickets
