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book_concierge's review
3.0
What a fascinating look at the Black professional class and the snobbery of color and class. Which group is less forgiving - the white Southerners longing for their pre-Civil War "home," or the middle/upper-class Blacks looking with disdain at their less-educated brothers.
Spoiler
And was Tina's death punishment for Lute's daring to move up in rank? Or for his dalliances with white women? Or for his gross mistreatment of women?ifyouhappentoremember's review
medium-paced
4.0
I'm a bit in shock this book is so short. Usually, books with multi-generational stories covering the complex topics of colorism and racism (to name the broad heavy-hitting topics) don't clock in at 240 pages. But this book is so masterful and engaging.
pooh08's review
4.0
"The Wedding" by Dorothy West is an amazing book! It delves into the complexities of race, class, and family dynamics within the Black elite community during the 1950s.
sam_bizar_wilcox's review against another edition
5.0
A tragic fable, The Wedding captures a distinct social milieu of wealthy Black intellectuals in the 1950s. The setting, the parlors and portals of Martha's Vinyard cottages, serves as a sumptuous backdrop to a multigenerational saga that builds out from the story of the titular wedding. Indeed, the wedding is far from center stage, as Dorothy West becomes more interested in how a family comes to grapple with racism from outside and within its own house. There's Gram, who is the grand matriarch and a white woman who must reconcile with her own deeply held prejudices and her relationship with her grand and great-grandchildren. Then there's the generations in between, which feature illicit loves and infidelities before winding down to Shelby and Meade, the interracial betrothed couple at the beginning of the novel.
With a meandering plot that considers, with humanity and intense scrutiny, the lives that came before, The Wedding is a clear look at what it means to love and be loved in a period of history when such love was often impossible. It is, too, a wrestle between physical desire and a more philosophical depiction of love. The conflict at the center (or, as the novel expands, really at the book's periphery of beginnings and endings), exposed in the novel's opening chapter, comes when another character--Lute--aims to halt the wedding of Shelby and Meade and wed the bride himself. This mission's success depends on the depth of his passion, how it measures next to the couple before him.
West's novel is best as a look at a unique time and place, through the eyes and minds of special characters and their abilities to be intimate (or not) with one another. But the novel works in another, almost Platonistic way: it imagines the ways families are shaped. It shows how often fraught and subject to cracking these bonds between relations can be, but it supposes, in an idealistic way, that after all the cracking and friction some kind of unity can be earned. Family is unstable, but it can demand truce.
With a meandering plot that considers, with humanity and intense scrutiny, the lives that came before, The Wedding is a clear look at what it means to love and be loved in a period of history when such love was often impossible. It is, too, a wrestle between physical desire and a more philosophical depiction of love. The conflict at the center (or, as the novel expands, really at the book's periphery of beginnings and endings), exposed in the novel's opening chapter, comes when another character--Lute--aims to halt the wedding of Shelby and Meade and wed the bride himself. This mission's success depends on the depth of his passion, how it measures next to the couple before him.
West's novel is best as a look at a unique time and place, through the eyes and minds of special characters and their abilities to be intimate (or not) with one another. But the novel works in another, almost Platonistic way: it imagines the ways families are shaped. It shows how often fraught and subject to cracking these bonds between relations can be, but it supposes, in an idealistic way, that after all the cracking and friction some kind of unity can be earned. Family is unstable, but it can demand truce.
bibliogirl0511's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mak99's review
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
janelleaimi's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jasvictorious's review
5.0
The syntax in this novel was absolutely amazing, as to be expected from a writer from the Harlem Renaissance. I enjoyed the storyline and the introduction of all the characters and their familial contributions as race, color, and class were all examined through their eyes.
The ending was a tad disappointing but it didn't sway me too bad from enjoying the overall work.
The ending was a tad disappointing but it didn't sway me too bad from enjoying the overall work.