Reese Witherspoon back in bookish movie news: The Engagements

Reese Witherspoon is back in bookish movie news with the acquisition of The Engagements. The novel from best-selling writer J. Courtney Sullivan hits bookstores this June; Witherspoon will produce along with Bruna Papandrea via their Pacific Standard company. The ladies clearly have literary leanings - hallelujua! -  Witherspoon is also producing the Gone Girl movie based on Gillian Flynn's creepy thriller (but says she won't take the starring Amy role in it.)
IF Witherspoon plays an on-camera role in The Engagements, any guesses what part she'd take?  Check out the story description ...


The story: 

From the New York Times best-selling author of Commencement and Maine comes a gorgeous, sprawling novel about marriage—about those who marry in a white heat of passion, those who marry for partnership and comfort, and those who live together, love each other, and have absolutely no intention of ruining it all with a wedding.

Evelyn has been married to her husband for forty years—forty years since he slipped off her first wedding ring and put his own in its place. Delphine has seen both sides of love—the ecstatic, glorious highs of seduction, and the bitter, spiteful fury that descends when it’s over. James, a paramedic who works the night shift, knows his wife’s family thinks she could have done better; while Kate, partnered with Dan for a decade, has seen every kind of wedding—beach weddings, backyard weddings, castle weddings—and has vowed never, ever, to have one of her own. 

As these lives and marriages unfold in surprising ways, we meet Frances Gerety, a young advertising copywriter in 1947. Frances is working on the De Beers campaign and she needs a signature line, so, one night before bed, she scribbles a phrase on a scrap of paper: “A Diamond Is Forever.” And that line changes everything.

A rich, layered, exhilarating novel spanning nearly a hundred years, The Engagements captures four wholly unique marriages, while tracing the story of diamonds in America, and the way—for better or for worse—these glittering stones have come to symbolize our deepest hopes for everlasting love.


I like the idea of looking at four different marriages, and the scope - "spanning nearly a hundred years " promises a saga feel.  And as a onetime copywriter, I'm curious to see how Frances Gerety, (Witherspoon?) the ad copywriter who comes up with the "A Diamond is Forever" line fits in.  Will the country's interest in advertising, fueled by Mad Men, carry over. And if I may pop the big question is; is this a novel or a De Beers diamond commercial?

Have you already read and reviewed The Engagements? Feel free to post a link to your review of The Engagements  in the comments section.