Contemporary novels rework infidelity, polyamory and domestic betrayal

A Guardian essay surveys how contemporary fiction is revisiting stories of infidelity, polyamory and domestic breakdown, tracing a thread from pop culture to recent novels. The piece opens with Lily Allen’s breakup album West End Girl and the tabloid reading that links it to a reported dalliance with David Harbour; it then notes the author’s own comic novel The Ten Year Affair, which uses a dual timeline to send up familiar affair tropes such as sleazy hotel rooms and escalating lies.

It cites a range of recent examples: academic affair novels (Julia May Jonas’s Vladimir, Emily Adrian’s Seduction Theory), polyamory work such as Raven Leilani’s Luster, throuple-focused books by Sally Rooney, and Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter, set in 1962 and following two couples while one husband conducts an affair.

Miranda July’s All Fours, Sarah Manguso’s Liars and Catherine Lacey’s The Möbius Book are discussed for the ways they handle desire, betrayal and narrative form, while Lauren Elkin’s Scaffolding is noted for taking desire seriously without overt moralising. The essay argues this is generational as well as thematic: as millennials settle into marriage, new novels explore alternative relationship models and often centre fallible, dynamic women.

Key Topics

Culture, Infidelity, Polyamory, Lily Allen, David Harbour, Raven Leilani