An Actual Life
"It is too bad marriage doesn't come with attachments like a vacuum  cleaner. You can't do anything with ours. Ours just sits there and blows hot air,"  says Virginia, the 19-year-old narrator ofAn Actual Life. Having gotten pregnant  in the late 1950s after a single night of not so blissful sex, she is now mired in a joyless  marriage. Her young husband Buddy works, goes to school, and ignores her, preferring to  spend free time with his high school girlfriend Irene, whose marriage to Buddy's best  friend Chick seems just as much of a sham. In the meantime, Virginia plays with their  daughter Madeline, repeats every superstition she's ever heard--passing on the stairs is  bad luck, a dropped knife heralds a man's arrival--and obsessively charts Buddy's  comings and goings. Quirky humor makes the reader laugh and wince, while adept  characterization and flowing prose add up to a wonderful, featherweight novel.