Marriage as a Ménages à Trois

"Goodreads" just send out by email a February newsletter in which several authors suggest books to read within certain categories.

Katie Kitamura, author of the recent novel "A Separation," listed five of her favorite books on the topic of marriage.





First among them was Daphne du Maurier's classic novel "Rebecca," published in 1938 and apparently never out of print thereafter.

"Du Maurer's novel is the ultimate depiction of marriage as a ménage à trois," Kitamura said.

Conventionally, a ménages à trois is an arrangement where three rather than two people share intimate relationships within a household. But Kitamura suggests that the concept can also apply if one person is physically absent, but still very much present emotionally. I think she is right.

In du Maurier's book, the unnamed male narrator can't get over his deceased first wife, Rebecca, and that obsession ruins his fragile marriage to a woman named Maxim de Winter.

The reason I bring this up is because Dan's marriage to Marcy in my novella "Manhattan Morning" can be seen in a similar vein.  Dan can't get an affair that Marcy had with another man -- a person of some consequence -- out of his mind despite a strong desire to do so.

Such conflicts are not uncommon in fiction and books in which they figure prominently are often widely read.  Once suspects that marriage as a ménages à trois is more common than many apparently happily married couples would like to admit.