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    The Marriage Act: The Risk I Took to Keep My Best Friend in America, and What It Taught Us About Love
    Unavailable
    The Marriage Act: The Risk I Took to Keep My Best Friend in America, and What It Taught Us About Love
    Unavailable
    The Marriage Act: The Risk I Took to Keep My Best Friend in America, and What It Taught Us About Love
    Ebook287 pages4 hours

    The Marriage Act: The Risk I Took to Keep My Best Friend in America, and What It Taught Us About Love

    By Liza Monroy

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Monroy captures the mysterious essence of what tugs at our hearts, what makes certain human relationships love affairs, friendships, partnerships.” —Interview Magazine
     
    After her traditional engagement to her high school sweetheart falls apart, Liza Monroy faced the prospect of another devastating loss: the deportation of her best friend Emir. Desperate to stay in America, Emir has tried every legal recourse to obtain a green card knowing that his return to the Middle East—where gay men are often beaten and sometimes killed—is too dangerous. So Liza proposes to Emir in efforts to keep him safe and by her side.
     
    After a fast wedding in Las Vegas, the couple faces new adventures and obstacles in both L.A. and New York City as they dodge the INS. Their relationship is compounded further by the fact that Liza’s mother works for the State Department preventing immigration fraud. Through it all, Liza and Emir must contend with professional ambition, adversity, and heartbreak and eventually learn the true lessons of companionship and devotion. This marriage that was not a marriage, in the end, really was.
     
    The Marriage Act is a timely and topical look at the changing face of marriage in America and speaks to the emergent generation forming bonds outside of tradition—and sometimes even outside the law.
     
    “Despite its breezy style, Monroy’s provocative memoir offers more emotional food for thought than can possibly be digested in one sitting . . . The book is bright. It’s chatty. But Monroy manages to deliver a hefty emotional wallop.” —Booklist, starred review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateFeb 11, 2014
    ISBN9781619023659
    Unavailable
    The Marriage Act: The Risk I Took to Keep My Best Friend in America, and What It Taught Us About Love

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    Reviews for The Marriage Act

    4/5

    6 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Well, one thing's for sure: Liza has lived a very colorful life so far.

      Her memoir takes us through her youth (moving around lots) to meeting her best friend in College. Emir is from a country where being gay endangers his life, and his visa is about to expire.
      They have been best friends for years, so Liza marries him. The book takes us through ups and downs of marriage, friendship, bureaucracy and lying to friends and family.
      Even though it is a platonic relationship, they lead a good marriage.
      Finally Emir gets a green card and both move on. Liza with her high school crush (who also needs a green card....what are the odds?).

      Without wanting to spoil too much, things work out well in the end, and Liza has many life lessons from her journey.

      I liked the book. Liza's life story reads like fiction. It's crazy that all those things actually happened to her. At times there was a bit of repetition, which made the book drag a bit in parts. But that is understandable when you are wrestling with a big decision in your life, you tend to spend a lot of time thinking, dwelling, talking about it.

      Overall, this is a very interesting and readable memoir.
    • 4/5
      This was a fascinating look into one woman's "illegal" greencard marriage with her best friend. Both heartbreaking and thought provoking, the author makes excellent points about what makes a marriage "real" or not. Although at times she is somewhat self-indulgently repetitive, her stroy is no less compelling. It is impossible not to sympathize with Ms. Monroy and her then husband's predicament and struggles. For anyone interested in the nature of relationships, I would strongly recommend this.