Writing a Feminist Novel With a Man's Point of View

By Heart is a series in which authors share and discuss their all-time favorite passages in literature. See entries from Colum McCann, George Saunders, Emma Donoghue, Michael Chabon, and more.

An American Marriage, Tayari Jones’s bestselling new novel, was almost never published. Though the plot hinges upon the wrongful imprisonment of Roy, a black man sent to prison for a rape he did not commit, the story, as Jones first wrote it, was told solely from the perspective of Celestial, his wife. That turned out to be too radical a gesture for some of Jones’s early readers, who were profoundly threatened by the way Roy’s suffering had been decentered. At times, Jones feared she might actually lose friends over her manuscript. Not wanting to alienate anyone, but frustrated by the backlash, she considered abandoning the book.

Ultimately, Jones found a way to rewrite An American Marriage to her satisfaction—with inspiration from Toni Morrison. In a conversation for this series, she explained how Morrison’s 1977 novel Song of Solomon provided a crucial model, one that showed how dimensional female characters might subvert a male-dominated narrative, even while relegated to the sidelines. We discussed how the pivotal moment—a rousing, scathing scene in which Lena, sister of the book’s hero, calls out her brother’s unwitting and destructive male entitlement—transformed Jones’s outlook on life when she first read it as a 17-year-old college student, and ultimately taught her how to write a feminist novel largely told from a man’s point of view.

The final, published version of the current selection of Oprah’s Book Club, features a trio of voices: Roy, Celestial, and Andre, Celestial’s loveand . She spoke to me by phone.