The Wedding People by Alison Espach: book review
TW: Suicidal Thoughts
Overview: Phoebe is going to Newport, Rhode Island to die. After a sudden divorce, hitting a dead end at work, and her cat dying, Phoebe no longer has anything to live for. She decides she wants to die at a hotel she's always fantasized about visiting. Suddenly, price is no object. But when Phoebe arrives, she realizes there's been a horrible mistake. She's the only guest at the hotel not there for a wedding, and a run-in with the bride changes all of Phoebe's plans. Overall: 4.5
Characters: 5 This book sings because of its characters, true to the literary fiction genre. Phoebe is a lost, lonely professor at the start of the novel. She didn't manage to land a tenure job like her husband, something that grinds on her. She's made no progress towards publication in the decade since writing her dissertation. And her marriage ended after her husband had an affair, which he excused on the basis that they discovered Phoebe couldn't biologically carry a child. Her life hasn't gone the way she hoped in any form or fashion, and she's at rock bottom. The wedding, however, offers Phoebe a sense of purpose as she's forced to step into larger and larger roles for a near-stranger's big day after the hotel mix-up brings them together. She gains a hope for building community with others again as she fixes each of the bride's crises. Then sparks fly with the groom, which isn't appropriate but is affirming that her romantic life can go on after her ex-husband. The groom's daughter also shows Phoebe's motherly instincts and offers her a hope that she can still have the family she imagined, albeit in a nontraditional way. Phoebe slowly opens up over the course of the book and rebuilds the sense of self that she lost over the decade in St. Louis.
The rest of the wedding cast makes an interesting, quirky world for Phoebe to navigate that is far from her own. Absurd distant relatives are the hallmark of any good wedding, and the "wedding people" are made all the more interesting through the lens of an outside observer. Gary, the groom, is a steady doctor who doesn't know how to trust his gut. Lila was born to be a bride, but she's more invested in an extravagant wedding than the marriage that will come after. Juice, Gary's daughter from his first marriage, is a tough teen who is looking for someone to see her for who she really is. The cast and the way they blend together, even at their messiest, is extremely compelling and heartwarming. There's an honest nuance to everyone in the novel.
Plot: 4 The book takes place over a wedding week, but it's thick for a reason. There is plenty of backstory and context baked in. There is also a lot of rumination, which makes sense given the depressed state Phoebe starts the novel in. These glimpses of past life and mindset mostly add to the story and create the necessary depth to add weight to the events that unfold quickly in the present moment. At the same time, though, they can sometimes slow down the pacing. I read the book relatively fast and was excited to keep reading every chance I got, so I wouldn't say there was a pacing issue, but the book doesn't always have a burning urgency to it.
Overall, there are so many great scenes that show character growth from every main character, and Espach does a great job of using the plot in service of the characters . There are just a few slower moments that might require a little patience.
Writing: 5 The interesting thing that I kept noticing as I read this book was that I consistently forgot that the novel wasn't in first person. We get so deeply wound in Phoebe's world that the thoughts slipped in beyond her purview jarred me a little. This says amazing things about the reader connection to Phoebe, and it allows us to watch Phoebe's immense growth, even though it's a quiet and internal journey. Espach does a great job of taking the immense amount of internal conflict and finding ways to externalize it and create a richer story around it. Literary fiction rarely offers a truly uplifting ending, but I really loved Phoebe's ultimate realization that it's never too late to change your story.
Note: I highly recommend listening to Alison Espach's episode of The Shit No One Tells You About Writing (Giving Characters Changing Wants and Needs to Fulfill Their Character Arcs). It was a great interview that was helpful as a writer and sold me on picking up the book after seeing all the buzz.
I got the chance to chat with Alison Espach after finishing The Wedding People, and I'll link that interview here if you're looking for more!
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Excellent review. I loved this book!
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