Who Are The Main Characters In Strangers A Memoir Of Marriage?

For people who like characters, this is a great book. The central cast of characters is extremely intimate and relatable. The story is told by the wife, Belle Burden, and the other main character is her husband, James in the memoir. He leaves her in an instant to go off with another woman and the rest of the book is the story of their three children trying to navigate life without their father. Their mother Belle is trying to hold things together for them and Belle’s mother, Amanda Burden, is in there too as well as the rest of the social world of Belle and her husband. It’s possible to get a sense of some of the unspoken bargains that Belle refers to in the relationships with her mother and the rest of society. The affair that led to James’ departure is described and then there’s a lot of description of the long, painful process of divorce, trying to sort out finances etc. It makes James’ seemingly arbitrary decision to leave even more painful. The children and the rest of the Burden family are presented as the real anchor to Belle’s life. She wants to preserve them and to understand them. Belle’s husband, James, is her bewildering, often infuriating partner/antagonist.

Note that in the memoir shortly to be released by Belle Burden, the main figures are the author-narrator and her husband James and their three children. Around these central figures Belles parents and the many people in her social circle, including the other woman involved with James after the divorce, rotate in and out of the scenes as they relate to the core questions of the book, particularly Belle’s desperate search to understand what happened to her partner. Intimate and public grief co-exist in the memoir as the reader explores the complicated lives of people with notable names, lots of money, and complex family histories.

Reading a memoir as long as Marriage to a Stranger can be a challenge, but this one I tore through. The core of the book is Bel Burden, the author and narrator of the book, her husband (referred to only as James throughout the book) and their three children. Within the broader context of Belle’s 20 year marriage to James that came to an abrupt end at the start of the pandemic, most of the emotional weight of the book is given to Belle’s attempts to understand who James was and how he was able to leave her for another woman. Supporting characters include Belle’s parents, especially her mother Amanda Burden, as well as references to her father and to her family’s old money. Even Belle’s grandmother, Babe Paley, makes an appearance or two as part of the social landscape that Belle grew up in and that influenced her marriage to James. The other woman, referred to only briefly as James’ lover, as well as the series of legal, financial and custodial events that follow James’ departure from the marriage are also central to the book. Reading this book felt like watching someone try to take apart a life to find the missing screws. Mostly Belle focuses on her children and tries to be as tender and forensic in her investigation of their circumstances as possible. The main characters to keep in mind while you read are Belle (the narrator), James (the husband referred to under a pseudonym) and their three children. Supporting characters include Belle’s parents and the unnamed other woman. I found particularly powerful the way that Belle manages to keep her children at the center of her account of her marriage while also trying to make sense of it.