An American Marriage draws much of its emotional depth by its sustained allusion to the marriage story of Odysseus and Penelope that shapes the narrative of Homer’s Odyssey, an epic poem among the oldest works in the Western canon. Odysseus is a Greek king of Ithaca, handsome and brave. He is wedded to Penelope, a princess of surpassing beauty, an artisan (like Celestial) known for weaving gorgeous tapestries. Shortly after they are married, Odysseus reluctantly agrees to lead the Greek army in a war against distant Troy. The war lasts ten years, and Odysseus’s harrowing sea voyage home (including years of imprisonment on forlorn islands) lasts another ten years. For those twenty years, his long-suffering wife never abandons hope that her husband will return to her.

Of course, this contemporary retelling of the story does not follow a character-by-character, scene-by-scene transcription. Rather, the narrative draws on the familiar story as a template for the ideal that love is nothing without fidelity. Both Odysseus and Penelope become entangled by potential lovers, yet both remain committed to their love. Odysseus is king and a soldier, but for all his regal trappings, he is a man who wants to get home.