Review of "The Wedding People: A Novel" by Alison Espach

Phoebe Stone is a forty-year-old professor of literature in St. Louis, Missouri. Phoebe especially loves novels that end with a wedding, which has always been the high point of the story for her.

Phoebe's own 12-year marriage ended when her husband Matt, a philosophy professor, suddenly walked out on her. The divorce came after years of unsuccessful IVF treatments, which may have been a factor since Matt left Phoebe for his colleague Mia, who'd recently had a baby. Thus, insta-family (among other things) for Matt.



Phoebe is depressed about the divorce, but the rest of her life is going poorly as well. Phoebe has spent ten years trying to turn her Ph.D. thesis about 'Jane Eyre' into a book, so she can apply for tenure, but it's going badly. Phoebe is tired of teaching the same classes again and again, to students who may or may not care. And Phoebe's cat Harry is dying of cancer.



So, on the first day of the semester after summer break, Phoebe snaps. She leaves school, puts on her best green dress, takes a plane to Newport, Rhode Island, and checks into the luxurious Cornwall Inn - where Phoebe had once hoped to vacation with Matt. Phoebe plans to relax in her $800 per night room; eat a delicious dinner; and commit suicide with her cat's pain pills.



As it happens, the Cornwall Inn is almost completely booked for a six-day wedding celebration, and Phoebe finds herself in an elevator with the bride. When the bride - a beautiful 28-year-old woman named Lila - asks if Phoebe is in her family or the groom's family, Phoebe explains she's not at the Cornwall Inn for the wedding, but to kill herself.



Lila is shocked, and exclaims, "No. You definitely cannot kill yourself. This is my WEDDING week.....This is the most important week of my life." Lila doesn't want her wedding marred by a suicide, and she more or less stalks Phoebe, to talk her out of the nefarious hari-kari plan.



To cut to the chase, Phoebe's suicide attempt is a failure, and Lila talks Phoebe into being her maid of honor. Phoebe therefore becomes an integral member of the wedding party, and since she's a professor, the other guests look up to her; confide in her; and ask her for advice.



Phoebe's closest confidant turns out to be the bride Lila, who got engaged to fulfill her father's dying wish.



Thus Lila is spending the million dollars her dad left her to pay for this extravagant wedding week, during which Lila will marry Gary - a pleasant, widowed doctor with an 11-year-old daughter nicknamed Juice.



We follow along as Phoebe attends the wedding activities, which include things like water massages; brunches; surfing lessons; boat rides; a tarot reader; penis-shaped straws; a Sex Woman; the rehearsal dinner; and so on.





Phoebe is also roped into doing errands with the groom Gary, and shopping with his daughter Juice, which gives Phoebe insight into their feelings as well.





The book is intended to be humorous, and it IS funny, but with serious undercurrents. The scenes of the wedding brouhaha alternate with flashbacks to the past, where we learn that Phoebe's mother died during childhood and Phoebe was raised by a single father;

Phoebe and Matt liked each other at first sight, and - for a while - had a happy marriage;



Phoebe isn't completely satisfied with her job and is frustrated with the book she's writing. Phoebe does like her work colleagues but feels pressured by her mentor Bob.



As the story unfolds, Phoebe realizes she's always been a buttoned-up person, averse to making waves, and it seems to be time for a change.

All the ancillary wedding guests, including Lila's high school friends, and Lila and Gary's extended families - which include a lot of men named Jim - add interest and humor to the book.



I enjoyed the novel, my major critique being that the story had too much of a predictable 'fairy tale' aura for my taste. Still, this is a good story, highly recommended.

Rating: 3.5 stars