The Wedding: A Novel
by Dorothy West
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dorothy WestEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-07-01
ISBN: 0385471440
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of The Wedding: A Novel
Book Review: Love is Truth Not Race or Class
Summary: 5 Stars
I have never read a book that touched my heart, made me laugh, made me cry, and written with such great depths of reality as "The Wedding". I could not put this book down because of the special relationship of Shelby and her sister. Shelby is the exact opposite of her sister. Shelby marries for love while her sister marries for class status and acceptance. The bond and relationship that these sisters share enhances the book further by showing the intricate relationships in the family. It has been a year or more since i've read this book, so you'll have to pardon me if i have any facts wrong, and yet i long to read it once again. Shelby shows her family that love is not determined by race or class but it is defined by truth. Shelby's character shows strength even at times when she is unsure of her own identity. I especially remember the time when shelby ran away and the people in the town couldn't find her because they thought Shelby was white. The story has a tragic ending which I did not anticipate unlike many books or movies which are so predictable. Each character in the book has their own flaws, strength and beauty. Although it is a work of fiction, this book is educational by the fact that it shows how assumptions, ideologies and expectations of class, race,gender, marriage damage,corrupt and influence people in society. Dorothy West's writing is simplistic yet eloquent as the story is constructed and built upon the lives and history of a family. The telling of the story through a family tree concept is not only original, but intellectual. It is a great work of literature that transcends time by the lessons it teaches. This book is "Unforgettable".
Summary of The Wedding: A Novel
In her first novel in forty-seven years, Dorothy West, the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class. Set on bucolic Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast's black bourgeoisie. Within this inner circle of "blue-vein society," we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from "a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions." Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.
With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy West crowns her literary career by illustrating one family's struggle to break the shackles of race and class.
While younger writers obsess over the need to show rather than tell, the octogenarian West simply grabs you by the lapels and drags you headlong through a multigenerational saga of affluent, Martha's Vineyard blacks who are so fair in complexion that they're almost white. And she does it all in something like 225 pages, sounding very much like Faulkner even when she's over the top, which is only now and then. You won't mind, because there is greatness here as well as gripping storytelling.
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