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A review by beachybookstack
The Wedding People by Alison Espach

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

This book was not what I expected it to be at all. I went in to it thinking it'd be a light pick, but it ended up covering a whole lot of the modern woman's experience finding her own identity. Marriage, fertility, career struggle, divorce, dealing with expectations. Phoebe's nothing-left-to-lose honesty leads her to real connections and sort of waking herself from her depression/fugue. Of course she discovers that she's not the only one going through the motions or having a hard time with the state of their life. Grief is woven through the novel in a few characters. Lila's grief over her father's death, Gary's widowing, and Lila's mother's loss of youth on top of her experience as a widow. Even Phoebe's childhood loss of her mother ends up connecting her to Juice as they both come to terms with how to be without a mother.

This all makes it sound very sad but I laughed more with this book than others I've read recently. The banter between Gary, Jim, and Phoebe is decent. Some of Phoebe's observations about "the wedding people" or the nature of being a bride is hilarious for anyone who's planned a wedding. Her reflections on her identity and marriage were often a release valve of her frustration but funny in a way, for those who have been married people. The expectations of it all being absurd. I wouldn't recommend this to someone about to get married, but I think it's somewhat cathartic for any woman who has lived in a marriage and questioned herself or been divorced.
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