The World is a Wedding

March 1, 2015
A sequel to the British author's captivating debut, The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals (2014).Forget the humorously inflated job description. As Wilfred admits, "undertaking was a simple business of box, hearse, and hole." Wilfred makes the coffins, and his beloved da digs the graves. It's the 1920s, and embalming has not yet reached Narberth, the gossipy, self-absorbed West Wales town where both novels are set. The earlier book saw Wilfred weathering a brief, unconsummated marriage to Grace, the doctor's daughter, and their subsequent divorce. Now Wilfred is marrying his true love, the saintly Flora, whose father he recently buried. The novel also tracks Grace, who in the earlier book was banished from her family home after refusing to reveal who had impregnated her. Grace was no loose woman; she had been raped by her brother. Now she's found work as a chambermaid at the Ritz in London. Wilfred's role in her downfall will seem murky to new readers, for he's barely discussed it with Flora. Their marriage begins awkwardly; the well-meaning Wilfred knows nothing about a woman's needs, and Flora feels adrift. If only she could hone her photographer's skills professionally! Female emancipation is a major theme. In London, Grace attends a Suffragettes rally and learns about women's self-defense; then her pregnancy forces her to leave the Ritz, and she gives birth in a bakery. Should she emulate her mother's hardness of heart and leave her son on a doorstep? While Jones moved confidently from light to dark in her debut, here the narrative zigs and zags at the expense of character, while scenes of boisterous fun among the Narberth townsfolk are a jarring distraction. The resolution, which involves witchcraft and violent melodrama, is likely to disappoint admirers of the author's debut.

Starred review from April 1, 2015

With rare old-fashioned storytelling having a beauty and grace all its own, this sequel to Jones's The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals offers a wonderful escape to the small Welsh town of Narberth in 1926. The novel opens with Wilfred's wedding to his beloved Flora Edwards. Soon she is expecting, yet doesn't feel wholly at ease, even as Wilfred struggles to be a good husband. Meanwhile, Grace, briefly married to Wilfred, has fled to London. The story unfolds events both joyous and tragic, and while Wilfrid ponders their relationship to him, he comes to the profound realization that "everything living was knitted and wedded to the world." Indeed, Narberth contains the whole world, the contented and frustrated, those who married well and those who withstand abuse, and everyone is joined together like the dovetail joints of a piece of furniture. VERDICT Delightfully crafted with realistic accounts of places and people and a remarkable sense of time, this novel offers a refreshing outlook on life. A terrific story of life and love told by a writer with a true gift for creating an atmospheric period piece.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
Wilfred Price, the undertaker in a small Welsh town, has much to celebrate in the year 1926. He's married the beautiful Flora Myffanwy and is tackling an expansion into the wallpaper and paint business as well as deepening his intellectual efforts by adding Socrates to his dictionary-reading regimen. However, all is not well with Wilfred and those in his circle, as is quickly shown in this charming follow-up to The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals (2012). While Wilfred and Flora work to break through the formality their marriage has imposed upon them, Grace, whom Wilfred had briefly and unwillingly married, has gone to work at the Ritz Hotel in London, where she struggles with a secret shame. Jones brings a light touch to even the most serious subjects, which is only enhanced by her characters' fortitude and generosity. The novel winks at some of the foibles of village life while celebrating the close bonds in such a community. This is a small, lovely story with a tremendous amount of heart, perfect for Miss Read fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)