Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.
The Wedding by Dorothy West
Fiction
1996 Anchor
Finished on July 13, 1996
Rating: 2/5 (OK)
Publisher's Blurb:
In her last novel, Dorothy West, an iconic 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.
My Original Notes (1996):
Confusing! Hard to follow the characters. I really was ready to quit reading it after about 100 pages, but kept at it. It got a little better - enough to hold my attention - but certainly not great.
My Current Thoughts:
I have absolutely no recollection of this book and I'm not sure why I chose to read it. It wasn't a book group choice, so maybe I just stumbled upon it in a bookstore and thought it sounded interesting.
I feel like I had this book on my reading list at one point but never got to it.
ReplyDeleteIliana, I hate to say it, but I don't think you're missing much.
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