Emma Burns is an interesting example of how a woman can fall in love while still belonging to a nationality, to both Europe and the United States. Although most people associate being ‘American’ with the flag and a propensity to have more prosperous economic prospects, there are many women who have been raised in completely American cultural circumstances and who have found a whole new way of life in Europe. Emma Burns is one such woman, and we will examine this in-depth as this book explores the unique position of being both a woman in marriage and a woman of culture.
At the start of the relationship Emma Burns had a distinct advantage over Rosie O’Rourke’s novel, partly because she was already very familiar with European men, in general having lived for many years in Europe as a student and later a domestic and international professional. Rosie O’Rourke had been married twice before and as such had little experience with typical European men. As Emma was already married and had been with her husband for nearly twenty years, it was natural that the familiarity would breed complacency. However, throughout the stories in this series by Emma Burns we learn about the often precarious positions that women find themselves in when their husbands move abroad or change nationality.
This leads Emma to be curious about the role gender plays in marriage. We are told many times in these stories that men are far more concerned with looks than nationality when they are thinking about marrying someone. This gives us a vivid example of how gender can play a part in the way we see a relationship between a woman and her husband. It helps explain why Emma Burns’ husband, Frank Burns, is almost immediately taken with another woman who lives in their country, but who has a completely different occupation and cultural background.