A Wedding in Great Neck

August 13, 2012
Family get-togethers gone wrong are fertile ground for dramatic fun, but McDonough (Breaking the Bank) fails to deliver anything better than a frustrating mess. Angelica, the 30-year-old baby of the Silverstein family, has invited her entire clan to attend her wedding to Ohad, an ex-fighter pilot, in Great Neck, Long Island. Unfortunately, not every member of the Silverstein family can be counted on to show decorum. Angelica’s estranged father is a ne’er-do-well recovering alcoholic; her brother Caleb is introducing his boyfriend, Bobby, to the family for the first time; her sister, Gretchen, is currently separated from her husband, Ennis, who’s also RSVP’d; and Gretchen and Ennis’s emotionally disturbed teenage daughter, Justine, is plotting to seduce Ohad and stop the wedding at all costs. As these volatile ingredients approach a boil, Angelica wonders if the event she’s planned so long for will ever come to pass. Readers will wonder as well when this plodding melodrama will get to its point. McDonough invites too many to the party; it’s hard to care about any of them. Agent: Judith Ehrlich.

September 1, 2012

The day of Angelica Silverstein's wedding to her fiance, Ohad, proves more eventful for the bride's family, who are the focus of McDonough's (Breaking the Bank) novel, than for the happy couple. Gretchen, Angelica's sister, is surprised on the morning of the wedding to discover that her estranged husband, Ennis, has decided to attend. Ennis arrives with the intention of mending things with Gretchen, but healing their deeply fissured relationship may prove to be an insurmountable challenge. Ennis and Gretchen's daughter, Justine, has ominous plans for the day, which include sabotaging the wedding. Lincoln, the bride's divorced father, has a reputation as a ne'er-do-well, but events conspire to redeem him before the wedding even begins. Meanwhile, the bride's grandmother, Lenore, keeps an eye on all her family members, doing her best to solve the brewing problems before they can boil over. VERDICT An interesting take on the wedding novel that doesn't place the bride and groom at the center. Fans of women's fiction about weddings and family drama are sure to enjoy.--Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2012
Angelica's wedding promises to be the defining event of the Silverstein family, and Betsy Silverstein can only hope that her assorted family members can set their separate preoccupations and shared grievances aside in time to watch her youngest daughter walk down the aisle. Written over the course of Angelica's wedding day, the novel features various narrators describing the petty annoyances and major grievances they'll have to work through, put aside, or flat-out ignore to band together for the happy couple's celebration. McDonough has assembled a touching, airy novel that manages to meld the concerns of family members spanning four generations into a delightfully well-written story. Readers who enjoy Mary Kay Andrews and Nora Roberts will relate to the Silverstein family as it embraces the deep wells of emotion that seem to surface only at major family events. With an authorial voice that switches deftly between impulsive teen-speak and a stately matriarch's flashbacks, McDonough's skill is to be commended. A tender, clever story with emotional heft.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)