The Wedding People
Alison Espach
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help us start anew. It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamt of coming for years―she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she's here without him. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe―which makes it that much more surprising when the women can’t stop confiding in each other. In turns uproariously, absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach's The Wedding People is a look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined―and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.
30% through and I'm so impressed with how real Phoebe feels; Espach has a real talent for making Phoebe's pain and psychology so relatable, especially her "cool girl" facade: she's chill, she doesn't need much, she doesn't ask much, she's easy to love- right? It reminded me so much of one of my favorite pieces from The Paris Review called The Crane Wife (linked at the bottom). This line from page 99 especially: "She could invite him up to her room. And why not?... Phoebe hesitates. The old Phoebe never made the first move. Not even with her husband after years of marriage -- she always waited for him to initiate. She was always too embarrassed to admit that she ever wanted anything, as if there was something humiliating about being a person with desires." If this resonates, I highly recommend checking out the Crane Wife article here; the theme is performative nonchalance, how women are mortified by their own needs and desires. Beautiful essay! https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/16/the-crane-wife/
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Whoaaaa!! I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one so much or FEEL so much whilst reading it, but boy did it hit hard. The only deductions I have are for the ending, but also acknowledge there's really no other way to have done it, it just somehow seemed to detract a bit from the whole journey overall for me. This was such a relatable story, which, again, really seems odd if you read only the plot intro, but it was!
3It takes a lot (I mean a LOT) to get me to cry while reading, and I definitely almost shed a tear. The Wedding People looks like a little light rom com from the cover, but that could not be further from the reality of this beautiful story. Our main character Phoebe is in her late 30's, divorced, and convinced her life is over. Watching her go from suicidal on the first page to fully embracing life by the last was a touching journey, and exactly the type of heartfelt, human experience that makes literature great. From the first 20 pages or so I knew this would be a 5 star read, and no part of this book made me question that rating. Straight 5 stars, NO NOTES
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