Left paralysed by a stroke, a renowned painter in Casablanca retraces the significant events of his adult life – his work, his affairs with various women and his tumultuous marriage to a jealous, manipulative and possessive woman. The painter is framed as the victim of the story, his illness and paralysis both a metaphor for the claustrophobia induced by his suffocating marriage and, also, a result of it. We trust the seemingly unbiased third-person narrator; we learn to dislike the wife and forgive the painter’s affairs and shortcomings. However, the more affairs amass, the more the painter’s ego and sense of entitlement begin to grate and, in a clever twist, a new narrative interrupts. In fast and passionate prose, the painter’s wife gives her version of events throwing the integrity of the painter’s account, his virtuous nature and victimisation – as well as the reader’s sense of judgment – into question.
The Happy Marriage is published by Melville House (£18.99). Click here to order it for £15.19
