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.
TW/CW –
Dear Ms. Espach,
I think I need to clarify for potential readers just what they might be getting into. I’ve seen the book listed with “humor” and “chick-lit” tags but honestly those aren’t the best fit for what happens here. Dark humor and wry humor are better choices. There are trigger/content warnings which are quickly revealed in the book.
Phoebe Stone has reached a point in her life where she thinks it’s time to end it all. Her marriage of twelve years has crashed with her husband having an affair, leaving, and divorcing her. Her job is not satisfying any longer nor does she feel valued there. The last straw is her elderly cat dying of cancer. Remembering a glossy magazine spread about an inn in Rhode Island, Phoebe makes a reservation, boards a plane with no luggage, and arrives intending to do the deed with the remaining pain pills for Henry the Cat. But on arrival, she realizes she’s in the middle of a blow-out, week-long wedding.
The bride, one of those perfect people whose life appears to have always been perfect, is horrified when, during the shared elevator ride up, Phoebe tells her what her plans are. No, that can’t happen here during her wedding. Lila barges into Phoebe’s room and ends up honestly dishing her thoughts on her friends and the wedding then leaves. But Phoebe realizes, while overhearing the toasts that evening on the patio below her balcony, that she wants to find out what is going to happen. When circumstances have Lila strong-arming Phoebe into the position of maid-of-honor, Phoebe spends a week getting to know these people and herself.
I gotta be honest and say I’m not sure the suicide plan ends up fitting well into Phoebe’s narrative. Her therapist (and thank goodness Phoebe has been seeking and getting mental health therapy for years) tells her that she’s “not really the type to commit suicide” and frankly after that first night when Phoebe tries, with means that even she must realize won’t work, and then changes her mind, the subject rarely comes up again. Suddenly Phoebe seems to almost forget her planned mission. It’s a bit dismissive of and callous to people with real life suicidal depression even if it does propel the plot along.
Phoebe is soon sucked into the lives of the major wedding people but mainly that of the bride and groom. Lila is rich, privileged and at times very dismissive of anyone standing in the way of her perfect wedding. But Lila also listened to Phoebe and (in a rare moment when Phoebe mentions her suicide plan again), as Phoebe tells Lila later on, being a part of this wedding got Phoebe up each morning that week and gave her something to focus on and – in a way – look forward to.
Along the way, Phoebe’s past, her marriage, and her career are shown. By the end, I feel that I understand the things in her life that sunk her to the point that she had made the decision she had. Then she starts learning about the Wedding People and sees the cracks in the facade, the frustration, the unwillingness or inability to call an end when that should obviously be done. When Lila’s last meltdown over nothing ticks Phoebe off for the final time, I cheered that someone finally gave Lila a helping of home truths which, TBH, Lila will probably ignore. She’s just that kind of person.
There are some lovely Wedding People including the groom and, most of the time, his eleven year old daughter. Gary and Phoebe connect and begin to communicate in ways that Phoebe never truly did with her husband. Phoebe loved Matt but Gary gets her. Thank goodness though that they end on a positive note but not rushing into anything.
Some parts of the book were genuinely funny and I did enjoy those and the (let’s *hopefully* be honest) parody of those ginormous, disgustingly over the top, week-long weddings. I agree with Phoebe’s disbelief that any wedding celebration needs to be that long. I also think it needs to be pointed out that there is a twelve year age gap between the bride and groom and that Phoebe is about the same age as the groom. Younger readers might not relate as well to this book as ones near or over forty.
With a few changes in what began the plot, I would have graded this one higher. Watching Phoebe change from a constricted person living a small life to someone willing to take chances and live was lovely. The dry humor and honesty between Phoebe and Gary was one of the best parts of the book. But I couldn’t quite believe that one week could change someone this much, although the insta-attraction actually worked for me. B-/C+
~Jayne
AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle
Related
Jayne
Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 25 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there’s no TSTL characters and is currently reading more fantasy and SciFi.
