A Wedding in December (2005)

It wasn't very entertaining. It felt like a let down when what happened to Stephen was revealed. The book was just blah. I didn't care for the story within the story. I pretty much skipped over the story that Agnes was writing. I'm not sure what was up with all the September 11th references, it didn't seem to even fit in with what was going on with the reunion. ( )

3.5 stars.

Bill and Bridget were high school sweethearts, but split up before they got married. 20-some years later, they found each other again, and 27 years after graduating from high school, with Bridget going through chemotherapy and not sure about the prognosis, they are gathering some of their high school friends together to witness their wedding. It's a weekend reunion where secrets are spilled and the discussion often steers away from more difficult subjects like their friend Stephen, who just disappeared into the ocean while drunk way back when, and his body washed up on shore a week later.

It was told from a few different viewpoints: Recently widowed, Nora (Stephen's girlfriend in high school), who runs the small inn where the wedding it being held; Harrison, Stephen's best friend and roommate in high school; Agnes, who now teaches at their old school.

It was good. There were tangents I wasn't interested in, like the story Agnes was writing. I could have done without that entirely. At the start, the writing seemed a bit stilted or something. I'm not sure what it was, but the dialogue just didn't seem natural. After a bit, I guess I got used to it, as it didn't bother me later in the book. ( )

A group of high school friends meet again 27 years later at the wedding of two of them. Over the weekend, it is revealed that everyone is hiding something of their past. A really good book. Quite sad as the bride, battling cancer faces her future. The others also have sadness and regrets. ( )

From November 2005 School Library Journal:
A Wedding in December carries many of Shreve’s hallmarks: simple and elegant prose; characters who are entirely convincing in their portrayals of human fallibility; and a plot buildup with a twist toward the end that packs a wallop.
Set in New England several months after the September 11 attacks, this is the story of seven former classmates who have not seen each other in twenty-seven years, but who have come together for a wedding. Bill and Bridget, who dated during high school and then went their separate ways, have reunited and are getting married in the face of Bridget’s advanced breast cancer. Nora, who owns the inn where the wedding will be held, is trying to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. Harrison believes himself to be content with the life he has made in Toronto with his wife and two sons… until he sees Nora again. Agnes, Nora’s old roommate, has a secret she is desperate to share with the others. Jerry gives every appearance of outward success, but is helpless to prevent the façade from crumbling over the weekend. And over all of them hangs the specter of Stephen, Harrison’s old roommate whose charismatic life and tragic death they all allude to but seem unable to address head-on.
Paralleling the story of these friends, Agnes is writing a novel about the Halifax explosion of 1917, a little-known disaster that resulted in the deaths of almost 2000 citizens of the Nova Scotia community when two ships collided in the harbor. This story-within-a-story not only provides an eye-opening account of a piece of World War I history, but allows Agnes to address some of her own issues through her characters.
Shreve’s novels are consistently understated and graceful explorations of the choices we make in our day to day interactions with each other and the consequences of those choices. A Wedding in December is an excellent piece of American literature to add to any high school library.

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Often I can't look past a books writing to give credit to a decent story. This time, I can't get past the worldview of the book to clearly see the writing.

(Spoiler Alerts)
I think there are two (linked) messages in this book: the first is that you never know when tragedy will strike so live your life now. This theme is subtley given in the numerous references to 9/11 and the World Trade Centre (even though it was published in 2005, it must have been written shortly after 9/11/2001 because the event is so evidently in the forefront of the characters' consciouses) and the comparative tragedy and devastion of the Halifax Explosion during WWI (which is outlined in a metanarrative). At first I couldn't figure out what the point of the metanarrative about Innes was, but the other seems to be pointing out that Halifax and Nova Scotia healed from that horrible tragedy and New York will recover from its devastion, in time (though the people directly affected will always bear those scars).
The second message is also connected to Innes, but also to just about every couple in the book. I'm unable to capture it in a single, pithy sentence, but concerns true love that got away and extramarital affairs. This is where the worldview distraction comes in.

I can't tell for sure, but I'm left with the feeling the author is saying an affair is okay if it is with your true love, possibly the one who 'got away.' She puts a positive light on Bill, who left his wife when he rediscovered his high school sweetheart 25 years later, and on Harrison, who claims one night with Nora, the girl he admired from afar. Even Innes, who dutifully married blind and disabled Louise, is cheered for meetings with her sister Hazel, his lost true love. At the same time we are shown Agnes, who is the longtime mistress of an older married man. While she painfully feels the loneliness of the months or years between their meetings, she also has the pleasure of passionate living each moment she has with her man, without the doldrums of marriage. Is it worth it? Shreve implies that it is. If one spouse is prone to meaningless affairs, however, Shreve seems to say, that will hurt the marriage (as in Carl & Nora's, Jerry & Julie's). Almost all of the marriages in the book have infidelity, except for the partnership of Rob and Josh, but because they are never given a voice, it seems that their relationship is irrelevant or maybe too perfect to be real.

While Shreve may be perpetuating the romantic dream of that one true love you never got over, she is removing romance and even belief in marriage. For this reason, I can't fully accept this book.
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