The People We Hate at the Wedding
A Novel
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کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
Starred review from April 10, 2017
Ginder (Driver’s Education) takes family dysfunction to its hysterical limit in this joyously ribald, sharply cynical, and impossible-to-put-down examination of love and loyalty. Mining the rich vein of comedy and drama inherent in a lavish, over-the-top wedding, Ginder spins the stories of siblings Alice and Paul, half-sister and bride-to-be Eloise, and their mother, Donna, as they make their way to Eloise’s nuptials in a quaint hamlet in the southwest of England. For Alice and Paul, the trip is fraught with a troubled family and personal history: they’re both in poisonous and doomed relationships and see Eloise as the snotty daughter of a rich, absent dad, and Donna as a coldhearted widow who quickly ditched all remnants of their father after his death. During the boozy prewedding days, the resentment and secrets come tumbling out in outbursts and dangerously, hilariously bad decisions. As a happy ending seems to slip further out of sight, Ginder provides far better: laughter and hope. “Love may disappoint,” Paul tells cold-footed Eloise before she walks down the aisle, “but that doesn’t absolve us from the duty of loving.”
Narrator Dan Bittner and Khristine Hvam team up for an impressive performance involving alternating perspectives. Paul and Alice's half-sister, Eloise, is getting married, and they're prepared to hate everything about the wedding--just as they've hated everything about their perfect sister. Being rich and French, Eloise is starkly unlike them and their Midwestern background. The believable dialogue requires varying accents and cadences, but each internal voice is differentiated only by gender. This tactic highlights how similar the family members are in contrast to their warring words. Listeners will be moved by insults dripping with sarcasm and voices thick with pain--and just when it all feels too dark, comedy comes to the fore, and they'll laugh at the ridiculousness of the disputes. A.L.C. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
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