A Wedding in December

A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
Contemporary Fiction
2007 Little, Brown and Company
Finished on 12/29/08
Rating: 2.5/5 (Fair)




Publisher's Blurb:

At an inn in the Berkshire Mountains, seven former schoolmates gather to celebrate a wedding—a reunion that becomes the occasion of astonishing revelations as the friends collectively recall a long-ago night that indelibly marked each of their lives. Written with a fluent narrative artistry that distinguishes all of Anita Shreve's bestselling novels, A Wedding in December acutely probes the mysteries of the human heart and the endless allure of paths not taken.

Meh. I picked this off my shelves on a whim, looking for a comfort read to settle into during the Christmas season, and decided on A Wedding in December simply because of the title. It took quite a while to get interested and I considered throwing in the towel on several occasions. Initially, I didn't care for the story-within-a-story about the Halifax Explosion of 1917, but ironically, it was that piece of history that held my interest once I got further along in the book. I never came to care for any of the characters in this novel and I'm fairly certain they'll be long forgotten before the end of the month. Shreve is one of those hit-or-miss authors with me. I loved Fortune's Rocks and The Pilot's Wife but didn't think much of Light on Snow or The Weight of Water.

For more information about the Halifax Explosion, go here.