An American Marriage

The novel closes with three letters between Celestial and Roy settling the paperwork about their divorce in the months since Roy left for Louisiana. In Roy’s letter, he tells Celestial how his beating of Dre haunts him, how he understood that he could easily have killed the man with his bare hands. The degree of his anger scares him even now. He assures Celestial that he has used those same hands now to sign their divorce papers.

Celestial writes that she and Dre are still together. She will not marry him: “I don’t want to be anyone’s wife […] We’re living our lives together, a communion” (304). She reveals that she is, however, pregnant, a daughter, and she asks Roy to keep the three of them in his prayers.

Roy in turn reveals that he and Davina are engaged, sort of. They are living together but not interested in children. He reassures Celestial that he is back on his feet: “She and I are enough to be a family” (305). He struggled to find work, but now he and his father have opened a barbershop called Locs and Lineups. Life, he says, is mostly good. Sometimes he talks about getting out—going far away and starting fresh in New Orleans or Houston.