Isn't it funny how readers can have such vastly different reactions to the same book? I think I loved Alice McDermott's At Weddings and Wakes for just the reasons many other (Amazon) readers panned it. Too wordy? Beautifully lyrical. And actually I felt that she told her story with a perfect economy of prose. Pointless and plotless? Maybe we didn't read the same book. This is not a plot-driven story by any means, it's all about an Irish-American family living in Brooklyn in the 1950s and 60s. It's not a difficult read, but the structure is slightly complex and she does ask of the reader for their attention and a certain active participation in the storytelling process. Chick lit? No, we didn't read the same book. If a story is primarily about women does that make it boring chick lit? I suspect you already know how I feel about that one. Yes, there is much about the inner lives of women in this story, which I didn't find the least boring (just the opposite as a matter of fact) and definitely no less worthy than any other subject an author chooses to write about. I guess it all comes down to personal taste, right?I'd say it's a nod to the author's abilities that it took me well into the middle of the book to realize that the chapters could almost be read as interlinked short stories (of course I'm partial to short stories, too), though the book is classified as a novel. Best to consider it as novel that is episodic in nature. I was too caught up initially in the beauty of the prose and the story(ies) she was telling to pay as much attention to how it is crafted to be honest. It's told from the perspective of three children, keen observers despite their youth of the faults and foibles, petty grievances, unhappiness and discontents as well as moments of pure bliss and enlightenment of their tight-knit extended family.Twice a week in every week of summer, save for their summer holiday at the end of July and beginning of August, Margaret, Bobby and Maryanne travel from their home in Long Island to that of their grandmother's in Brooklyn. It's a ritual that includes a stop at a local candy shop for butterscotch Life Savers, bus and train rides and the purchase of warm, floury bread, the sort that "Christ ate at the Last Supper", to bring to Momma's. Momma is Lucy's stepmother, and the children's grandmother. She's also the sister of Lucy's mother who died in childbirth. Four daughters Annie and Jack had before departing the world. Momma took up caring for the girls and eventually married Jack adding a son to the brood before Jack decided to die, too.Lucy's life is not how she imagined it would be. In her mind she thinks about leaving her husband and she discusses this possibility to Momma and her sisters, but at the end of the day when her husband arrives to take her and the children home, she fixes her hair and reapplies her lipstick and returns once again to her life. Her three sisters life spinster-lives with Momma, but John has left. Both John and Veronica, the youngest daughter--the one who never knew her mother--rely too much on alcohol to see them through life's difficulties. The story of each adult sibling, as well as Momma's life is touched upon and reflected on. Some small or big event as witnessed by the children becomes the focus in turn. Agnes, the eldest leads a refined and cultured life as a career woman with elegant tastes and a decided opinion about how life should be lived. May was once a nun, but left the religious life behind when she became too dependent on it--loved it too much. She has a second chance at happiness when a romance sparks between her and the mailman. So smitten by her he sends her flowers every week. And Veronica, the youngest, leads a life once hopeful but tinged by sadness as she carries with hera scar on her face. She's a little too reliant on the cocktails that Agnes mixes to perfection for her sisters and Momma. It's not just weddings and wakes that bring the family together, even though a cousin jokingly tells the the children "aren't you glad that you only have to see your relatives at weddings and wakes?", though the story is peppered with them. They're just the more obvious symbols of the joys and sadnesses that fill the lives of this family. A strength of the story is how representative their stories are of the greater world around us, no matter what the period. Maybe Alice McDermott is not for everyone, but she is definitely for me. Why did I wait so long to pick this book up? It has been sitting patiently on my bookshelf for its turn for far too long (why I need to keep reading from my own shelves). I won't wait so long to read another book by her and am now off to scan my shelves for my copy of That Night, which I've heard many good things about.
Well - this book should have been a fantastic read - there was a powerful story here with lots of potential - however the author's over descriptive language made it hard to understand at times. The story was written in the third person - she and he - however - you sometimes didn't know who you were following - who's thoughts - actions etc. At one point, they are talking about the dad arriving - and how he dropped dead at the top of the stairs - I reread that several times before I realized they were in the past - and it was the father of the now adults - not the father of the children in the story; another time I finally got the gist that I was following the dead mother - the one who had died in childbirth - but it never told me that I was listening to her thoughts until the end of the chapter when the author revealed that one of the daughters was reading her journal. The grandmother (the real mother's sister who married their father) and the children's mother (Lucy) - were both referred to as "Momma". That also added to the confusion of knowing who you were following. The author also took us out of sequence - so we were in the summer of the tragic event and the fall after that before flipping back to the fall before, going through Christmas and spring and into the summer and the wedding - before finishing up at the vacation cottage the day before the news of the tragedy arrived. Alice McDermott is praised for her ability to story tell - and I'm going to have to read something else she wrote to know whether her writing style just doesn't mesh with my reading style or whether this book was an anomaly. I really think there was a much better way to tell this story - that would have been clear, concise and she could have used all her descriptive language - and brought us a beautifully tragic story. But she followed her own route - which left me confused and rereading passages over and over again because I was lost.
Do You like book At Weddings And Wakes (2003)?
Intriguing temporal/structural strategies in this book, kind of like a Rubik's cube. But the atmosphere of it was SO claustrophobic! I kind of hurried to get through it so I could get out of there, as I was feeling suffocated by the details as filtered (and often repeated) through child-consciousness. And not just one child, but three, experiencing their family stories in a way that winds up holding the emotional impact of the family dramas at a distance. So I found out what happened, but as through a glass darkly. I'm sure it captured the mood of time and place and this particular family, but . . . whew! Relieved to be done with it, in the way I was relieved as a child that the drive was over, or school was out. She really does capture what that feels like to be so flooded and fascinated and baffled by the minutiae of experience, so at the mercy of surrounding adults, so likely to make innocent errors you're desperate to avoid, so often trapped and . . . that word again . . . suffocated by family and culture's expectations, rules, scrutiny, judgments and demands. I gave it 3 stars, but 2.5 would be more accurate. Teetering on the edge.
—Diane
This book sat in my shelf for a couple of months . . . . for no particular reason. it took a few pages to commit to it as i'd just finished a page turning mystery and this is a much different type of book. It is lyrically beautiful, a portrait of a family (in the words of another reviewer). The happenings of this family are revealed in the same way we see details in a painting, sometimes in a seemingly random order, sometimes with a hint that slowly develops into something greater, and often from a variety of perspectives that let us slowly see an image of truth. I love books that are page turners, but I also love books that let you sink into the characters. Alice McDermott has certainly produced a glowing portrait of the family's unexpected joys and sorrows. These are also the joys and sorrows that will resonate with many families as we continue through ordinary life. Maybe it's a "slow burn" but ultimately worth working through its episodic structure to the real beauty within it.
—Jennifer
I'm afraid to say that I didn't love this. I know we all must love everything that Alice writes. This is my first of her books, and I was disappointed. Maybe it's all the build-up and "walking on water" expectations. Anyway, I found her point-of-view confusing; it's primarily told through the eyes of three children, except that the reader is to accept that "the children" all felt and thought the same thing all the time. Weird and not believable. Her actual writing is lovely, but the structure and the actual telling of the story I found less than perfect. Great big build-up to a fizzle-ending, in my humble opinion. I want to know what happened, for heaven's sake. (I know, how old fashioned that I should desire an actual ending.)Perhaps I'm just grumpy. I'll definitely try another of hers and hope for better.
—Melanie Griffin
