Wedding Season

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Paperback: 342 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1ST edition (March 23, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400051452
ISBN-13: 978-1400051458
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Seventeen weddings in six months—what's a girl to do? Especially when she's Joy Silverman, who's perfectly happy in her relationship with Gabe and perfectly adamant about her refusal to ever get married. First, there was the breakup of her parents' marriage and her mother's subsequent emotional meltdown; second, there's the lack of any "empirical evidence that marriage is really all useful or effective these days, that it does anything for relationships and the people in them." But most of Joy's friends and acquaintances—not to mention her recently betrothed mother, father and younger brother—do believe in marriage. Thank goodness cynical Joy's artsy hunk of a boyfriend agrees with her that marriage is as outdated as "using leeches or bloodletting." But everyone keeps asking when Joy and Gabe will tie the knot, a situation that causes Joy no small amount of turmoil. So, from April to September, Joy and Gabe dance and drink and toast; in between weddings, Joy spends plenty of time with pals at the Pantheon, her favorite New York City watering hole. Despite the whirlwind of nuptials, Cosper manages to keep each ceremony distinct (some are formal, some involve paparazzi, some are same-sex commitment ceremonies). Cosper's dialogue can get too jokey, and there are a few too many self-consciously colorful characters. But Joy's narration is sly and sharp, and Cosper doesn't fall into the happily-ever-after trap readers of hip chick fiction have come to expect. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Joy Silverman can't understand how she got herself into such a predicament--her date book says she's accepted invitations to 17 weddings in six months, including those of her mother, father, younger brother, aunt, and five of her oldest and dearest friends. What makes it even more astonishing is that Joy doesn't believe in the institution of marriage--at least for herself. Almost 30, a successful ghostwriter and living with Gabe for more than a year, Joy is happy and content with where her relationship stands and is vocally adamant about not getting married. But with all the showers, dress fittings, rehearsal dinners, and weddings, Joy finds herself rethinking her position on marriage. When Gabe proposes at a surprise party, Joy must finally decide if she really is antimarriage, possibly commitment phobic, or just finding excuses to not marry Gabe. It is a charming and satirical look at love, marriage, and what happens to people with less-than-conventional convictions when society challenges them at every turn. Carolyn Kubisz
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Wedding Season