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    A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage
    A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage
    A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage
    Audiobook6 hours

    A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage

    Written by Sally Ryder Brady

    Narrated by Joyce Bean

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Upton and Sally Brady were a rare breed: cultivated and elegant, they lived a life of literary glamour and high expectations. Sally a debutante, Upton a classics major from Harvard, they met at the Boston Cotillion. He was articulate, witty, and worldly, and he danced like Fred Astaire. How could she resist? Despite raising four children on Upton's modest wage as editor in chief of the Atlantic Monthly Press, theirs was a world of champagne, sailboats, private islands, famous writers, family rituals, and ice-cold martinis. They lived life on their terms. But as time wore on, Upton, the charming and brilliant husband, the inventive, beguiling partner, grew opinionated, cranky, controlling, and dangerous.

    When Upton died suddenly one evening in their Vermont cottage, Sally began uncovering secrets. As she went through his papers, she discovered that her husband of forty-six years had desired the love of other men. Her riveting, charismatic husband was not quite the man he appeared to be, and a year of mourning became for Sally a time to unravel the dark and unexpected web he had left behind. Hers is a moving and powerful story of coming to terms with what cannot be changed. It is also a story of great love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 1, 2011
    ISBN9781452670560
    Author

    Sally Ryder Brady

    Sally Brady, a writer, agent, teacher, and editor, is the author of the memoir A Box of Darkness, the highly successful novel Instar, one illustrated book of adult humor called Sweet Memories (Bloomsbury 2006), and two books of non-fiction, A Yankee Christmas, Volumes I and II (Rodale, 1991 and '92). In addition to her books, Brady has published short stories and essays in House Beautiful, The Boston Globe, Good Housekeeping, Yankee, Woman's Day and other periodicals.

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    Reviews for A Box of Darkness

    4/5

    34 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      It's interesting how many memoirs these days include finding out that husbands are gay or are having sex with men. In this one, wife Sally marries devout Catholic Upton Brady and has four children with him. He's an intense charmer, a publishing house executive and alcoholic, a great dancer who can whip up a cape on a sewing machine. He's also a mystery from the beginning of the book through his death at the end. As much of a challenge to me is understanding what and how Sally loved about Upton, who was often so cruel and so difficult to live with - yes, he was such a bright light that he probably made all else appear dim beside him, but what a beastly partner. Still, this held my attention all the way through. Just for once, however, I'd like to read a true story written by a husband whose wife became, or was, a lesbian.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a marriage told in alternating shifts in time from the present to the beginning. Sally Brady's husband, Upton, died unexpectedly and she learned things about him she never knew, primarily that she thought he might have been a homosexual. Their marriage suffered when he got drunk but had really wonderful moments as well. Sally knew that he had sex with a man during their marriage and I guess she assumed it was a one time thing. This seems to be a very honest portrait of a marriage in that Brady exposes her insecurities. She is bothered intensely by the idea that Upton had a secret self although we never know how much his perceived attraction to men entered into his life. I also wonder how such an honest portrait affects her grown children. This book bothered me in that the portrait of the marriage is only from her perspective and yet it can color memories of a man who is no longer around to possibly add to the full picture.
    • 5/5
      Quick read, but thought-provoking. Excellent choice for a book club discussion. Autobiographical story of a a young debutante who marries a man who is living a dual life with one foot in the straight world and one in the gay world.
    • 5/5
      The remarkably candid and very well written anatomy of a marriage that had many highs and puzzling, strange lows. Sally Ryder Brady obviously loved and loves her late husband, the urbane, intelligent, witty, sophisticated Upton. But she sure put up with a lot! Fascinating to hear about, and the reader, like Sally, ends up appreciating Upton's good points and feeling pained about his trouble at finding out just who he was, and his so often being at odds with himself and apparently taking that out on others. His "box of darkness" was plenty dark. An insight into what marriage with a bi- or homosexual man is like.
    • 5/5
      The title of this true story, “A Box of Darkness - The Story of a Marriage” fits very well. Sally Ryder Brady’s book is powerful and well written, and tells the story of a woman discovering unsettling things about her husband - after he dies suddenly. Though on the surface, and in public, the marriage seems one to be envied; underneath the relationship is filled with the many complexities of intertwining two adult lives. “A Box of Darkness” however, also reveals that one of the couple’s lives is much more diverse - and difficult to accept by his partner. The book rehashes Sally and Upton’s decades of married life together and is Sally’s attempt to discover, or accept, that even though her husband ‘strayed’, he really did love her. Sally Ryder Brady’s book leaves one feeling that ‘there except for the grace of God’… go any one of us, and undoubtedly leaves many of it’s readers contemplating the difficult decisions that such a situation must undoubtedly create.I usually read 2 or 3 books at a time - but every once in awhile I hit a book that I just can’t put down - “A Box of Darkness - The Story of a Marriage” by Sally Ryder Brady is one of those books. I received this book for free, to review from ‘First Reads’, part of Goodreads.com. I am a member of Goodreads, Librarything, Bookdivas and the Penguin book club.