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Loading... Midnight Champagne: A Novel: A Novel (original 1999; edition 2000)by A. Manette Ansay
Work InformationMidnight Champagne by A. Manette Ansay (1999)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This whole book takes place during one afternoon and evening - the wedding and reception of April and Caleb, a young American couple. There are vignettes of their family - rather disapproving, since the bride and groom have only known each other for three months - and friends, ncluding April's ex-fiancé. Meanwhile, at the connected lodge, a different couple are having a serious argument which has rather drastic results. Surprisingly, I quite liked this book - there was mild humour and some clever observation, and the supposed suspense wasn't really chilling in the slightest. But it was rather an odd sort of book. It was actually billed as a horror story but I didn't find anything horrific in it, and I'm no fan of horror in general. Less grim than some of the author's work, it nonetheless retains a gritty feel. The story is of a wedding, beginning as the bride dresses and ending at the midnight toast at the reception. Along the way we explore the families and closest acquaintances of the couple as well as the hearts and histories of the bride and groom, as the night with accompanying heavy snows goes on. Ansay is a master of imagery - I'll retain the image of the bride in her mother's too-hastily altereed gown with the pearls dropping off at every move for a long time. Bookcrossing: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5616028/ no reviews | add a review
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April Liesgang and Caleb Shannon have known each other for just three short months, so their Valentine's Day wedding at a chapel near the shores of Lake Michigan has both families in an uproar. As the festivities unfold (and the cash bar opens), everyone has an opinion and a lively prediction about April and Caleb's union, each the reflection of a different marital experience. Meanwhile, at the nearby Hideaway Lodge, a domestic quarrel ends in tragedy. As April and Caleb's life together begins, death parts another man and woman in angry violence--and as the two stories gradually intersect, their juxtaposition explores the tangled roots of vulnerability and desire. By the time the last polka has been danced and the bouquet tossed, Midnight Champagne has cast an extraordinary spell. From the novel's opening epigraph from Chekhov--"If you fear loneliness, then marriage is not for you"--to its final moments in the honeymoon suite, A. Manette Ansay weaves tenderness and fury, passion and wonder into a startling tapestry of love in all its paradox and power. No library descriptions found.
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There are some great characters in this book and there is, surprisingly, quite a bit of humor as well. It is quite an easy read with a lot of kitschy details of an unbelievably awful chapel and lodge. Fun stuff. ( )