A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick
A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her 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 dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.
Review:
The main character in THE WEDDING PEOPLE, Phoebe, is a literary professor who has spent her career studying 18th century marriage novels like JANE EYRE. She’s obsessed with them—both their promise of future happiness to be offered with a wedding and their morbid sadness as many of the heroines are orphans stuck in tough situations. Phoebe connects deeply to these heroines, and it’s this tension of dark and light that ultimately makes THE WEDDING PEOPLE such a thought provoking and engaging read.
Definitely not your typical romance, THE WEDDING PEOPLE starts out when Phoebe arrives at an upscale hotel in Newport, Rhode Island with plans to stay only one night and commit suicide. Her life is in disarray following her divorce and she’s struggled with depression for years. But when she arrives, she quickly realizes that the entire hotel has been booked out by guests of a million dollar, six day wedding event that’s happening there, and she, mistakenly, is the only guest of the hotel not attending the wedding. When she runs into the bride, Lila, and tells her her plans, the bride is appalled—Phoebe’s death will be the only thing anyone can talk about after Lila’s spent a million dollars and a year planning this wedding.
I loved the irreverence of this book—it’s unabashed romantic heart that always seems to just win out over its wide-eyed cynicism. Espach finds such a memorable tone here that balances some of these difficult subjects but never loses its joy and finds comedy even in the toughest moments. The character work is deep and fulfilling. Because Phoebe is the one outsider to the two families that are joining through the wedding, people feel more comfortable sharing with her. She quickly learns secrets and long-held tensions from characters like the bride, the best man, the groom’s sister, the groom’s daughter from a previous marriage simply because she takes on this sort of de facto therapist role. It’s a really unique way to build layered characters, and I felt like I knew all of the attendees here crystal clear. This is definitely a book for lovers of character, and maybe less so on plot—although there are also just some genuine surprises in the plot that are executed really well.
THE WEDDING PEOPLE, despite the name, is not the most romantic book you’ll read—there are definitely books that I would describe as more achingly romantic or more ‘sweep you off your feet.’ This book is more interested in exploring what romance really is—what the commercialization of it is when it comes to weddings, what makes people really right for each other, what our expectations are when it comes to romance vs what the reality can sometimes be, and what happens to romantic relationships in the long haul. I found it to be so thoughtful and eloquent and think it would make a great discussion for a book club. And like a great wedding toast, it may explore hard times, but it always wraps it up with joy and a hope for the future. Cheers to THE WEDDING PEOPLE!
5/5 Stars
