The Wedding People by Alison EspachMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I recently took my third writing course from CeCe Lyra, co-host of the podcast, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. This course was on Writing Interiority and Psychological Acuity. One thing I love about CeCe’s courses is that she uses lots of examples and shows us how the skill she’s teaching is used in a wide range of genres. When we think of “interiority” we tend to jump to literary fiction, not frothy commercial fiction. One book she cited frequently in this course was Alison Espach’s, The Wedding People. It’s heavy on interiority; almost all of it is people’s thoughts, with only a minimum of action in between. But this entertaining read is definitely commercial, not literary, fiction. It became a New York Times bestseller and the film rights were snapped up even before the book was published.
The clever premise brings together Phoebe, a woman who has been unable to cope with the breakup of her marriage, her inability to bear children, and her stalled career, with Lila, a self-absorbed bridezilla. On her way up to her room in a luxurious hotel, Phoebe discovers that she’s the only person not there for Lila’s week-long extravaganza wedding. She calmly tells Lila that, no, she’s not part of the groom’s family nor some long-lost relative of Lila’s, but is there to kill herself. Lila is horrified, but not for the reason you’d imagine. “You can’t do that to me! It’ll ruin the wedding.” (Those probably weren’t the exact words – I’ve already returned the book to the library, so I can’t look them up — but you get the idea.)
The characters all verge on tipping over into stereotypes, but are saved by the interiority, which helps us understand why they act the way they do. Despite the discussion of suicide, it’s got plenty of humour and a breezy, beach-read feel. It’s not great literature but I became invested in the characters and wanted to keep reading to see how it all turned out. (Even when I suspected I knew where it was headed.) I’d recommend it if you are looking for an entertaining, fast read. I’d give it a 3.5/5 if Goodreads allowed half-stars.
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