The Wedding People: A Novel
The runaway New York Times bestseller
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick, New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and a #1 Indie Next Pick
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, Time, Chicago Tribune Biblioracle, HuffPost, US Magazine, Elle, Real Simple, and Glamour
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.
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Community Reviews
What’s it about?
Phoebe Stone is an adjunct professor living in Missouri and trying to muddle through a painful divorce. On a whim, she decides to visit the Cornwall Hotel in Rhode Island to fulfill an earlier wish. Upon arrival, she discovers a large wedding is taking place at the hotel and she is the only guest not involved- when she meets the bride that changes rather quickly.
What did it make me think about?
The importance of accepting and loving yourself. Always good to be reminded!
Should I read it?
Some novels require you to suspend logic and go with the story. This was such a book. I could just hear the members of our book club saying loudly, “But that would never happen!”. I muffled those thoughts and just enjoyed the characters and the story. It was humorous and also heartwarming. I thoroughly enjoyed this book- I didn’t laugh out loud but I smiled a lot. “Thank God. People who take their coffee back are always so smug about it, you know?” Who doesn’t know those smug black coffee types? After I finished it I realized that I had read another Alison Espach book a few years ago (Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance)and I liked that one as well. Who knew- I am an Alison Espach fan!
Quote-
“I think we talk about happiness all wrong. As if it’s this fixed state we’re going to reach. Like we’ll just be able live there, forever. But that’s not my experience with happiness. For me, it comes and goes. It shows up and then disappears like a bubble.”
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