A Wedding in December

by Anita Shreve

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316738999
• ISBN13: 9780316738996
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 325 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Old Flames Never Really Die

Have You Ever Wondered what happened to your high school classmates? Have you ever gone to a reunion, talked to them, been impressed or disappointed. Have you taken your spouse. who didn't go to your school with you to introduce her to your friends? Bill went to the twenty-five year reunion of the prestigious prep school he graduated from, the Kidd Academy, but his wife stayed away, perhaps for her sake, she should've gone, or not. At the reunion Bill was reunited with Bridgett, his first love. Now that he's seen her again, he can't get her out of his mind, so he dumps his wife and daughter for his first love, who also, by the way, has breast cancer that may be terminal. These reunited lovers want to spend whatever time they have left together. So they call upon classmate Nora Laski who has used the money from her dead poet husband to trick out an inn in the Berkshires and they invite a few of their old classmates to attend their wedding at her inn. There is Jerry, the Wall Street hot shot who brings along his wife with an attitude. There is Rob, internationally renowned concert pianist who brings along his partner (yes he's gay, something his pals didn't know when they were in school). There is Toronto businessman Harrison, who all two quickly is ready to jettison his family to get into Nora's panties. Well, she was his first love, after all, so that seems to make it all right. There is Agnus who never married, never went away, she just stayed home and had an affair with one of her teachers (a married one) that lasted forever and now she pines about him and is busting to tell someone about her secret. And lastly there is the memory Stephen, Nora's first love, the boy who swept her away so that his best pal Harrison couldn't have her all those years ago. Somehow, way back then, during a night of revelry, Stephen drank to much and drowned. Or did he? So if I haven't given you enough to wet your whistle, I'll sweeten the mix by telling you that Ms. Shrive has described setting and place so well that you'll believe you're in the Berkshires. She's gotten into the heads of these people so well that you'll believe you know them, that they are your high school classmates and you'll be pouring through this book at the speed of light to see what they've been up to, to see what they've become. You'll get a lot more than you bargained for, let me tell you. Plus, I bet after reading this that if your reunion comes up soon that you'll be taking your spouse along with it. I would that's for sure. Reviewed by Sara Hackett, who just adore's her husband Jack Priest's books Ragged Man, Gecko & Night Witch.

Looking Back at Their Lives We see Our Own Past

I think that after we reach a certain age we all look back once in a while to life's decisions, loves, mistakes or simply what-could-have-been's. The premise in this book is just that, six friends who haven't seen each other in twenty-seven years have gathered for the bitter-sweet wedding of two of them who were lovers before but now with years, marriages and children behind them have rekindled their romance. The wedding is bitter-sweet because the bride has advanced, terminal breast cancer and is suffering from the side effects of the drugs and from fear. The book is classic Anita Shreve. The story is engrossing and serves to illustrate the ways that all of our lives take unexpected twists and turns. Her characters are people we all know, with some of their aspects falling very close to home. This book will continue her string of excellent books that force all of us to think about our own lives. There is little more than one can ask of a novel.

A beautiful, satisfying story

Anita Shreve's latest novel is a masterful weaving of storylines that come together at a small wedding in the Berkshires. There is Agnes, a single, middle-aged woman who carries a secret that intrudes upon her fantasies as well as her sense of self; Bridget, about to marry her high-school sweetheart far too late, while facing a mortality that may come far too early; and Nora and Harrison, whose ill-timed attraction many years ago resulted in the shameful death of a best friend. The chapters alternate between the points of view of these four main characters, and we are treated to Shreve's beautiful manipulation of voice as she switches between them. Perhaps the strongest story is Bridget's, fighting breast cancer, struggling with the details of a romance in the midst of the humbling demands of her disease and of her adolescent son's inability to accept the future and potential impending loss, learning to recognize the rays of hope that leak through the dark clouds. Then there is Agnes, whose obsession with her own unfulfilled relationship leads her to write a story, contained within Shreve's greater novel, whose conflicts of love, duty and tragedy echo the plights of herself and the people around her. Threaded throughout the tales is the common theme of "what might have been," as the characters explore their memories of and their imaginations about choices they have made and the consequences that result. Particularly interesting is the way Shreve ends the book, blurring the line between fictional characters and the writer that creates them; leading the reader to reflect on the way we invent our own realities. A satisfying story, with Shreve's beautiful, lilting prose carrying us along the way.

Shreve Explores theDilemma of "What Might Have Been"

When graduates of an elite prep school gather for the first time since graduation twenty-seven years previously, old secrets are revealed and passions long buried ignite. Facing the mid-life crises that plague so many, members of the class question their choices in relationships and ponder the proverbial road not taken. The occasion that brings this once tightly knit group together is the wedding of two of its members. Bridget and Bill were high school sweethearts, but he found another love in college and jilted her. A meeting at their 25th high school reunion led to rekindled romance and he has now left his wife and daughter to be with Bridget and her 15-year old son. The wedding is urgent since Bridget has terminal breast cancer. Determined to make Bridget's last years perfect, Bill arranges a wedding with the help of fellow classmate Nora. Nora owns a New England inn that was once the home she shared with her famous husband, a renowned poet. Now a widow, Nora is the perfect hostess arranging the details of the wedding and visiting with her former classmates, especially Harrison. Harrison has entered the publishing world in Toronto, but marriage and two boys he adores have not extinguished the flame that still burns in his heart for Nora. Immediately attracted to her when they were both seventeen, he didn't act quickly enough and she soon became the girlfriend of his best friend Stephen. It is the absence of Stephen and the mystery surrounding his tragic death just weeks before graduation that hovers over this group and explains why friends once so close have been estranged for more than two decades. Adding to the mix are: Agnes, the presumed spinster who in reality has been involved in an adulterous and demeaning affair with someone they all know; Jerry, a Wall Street banker with a seemingly cold wife and a personal misfortune; and Rob, a fellow member of the baseball team who has become a world-renowned pianist. Shreve hits all the right notes in this one as she delves into the insecurities, misgivings, and vulnerabilities of outwardly successful people. An example of her insights I found particularly penetrating was the following from page 151: "A twenty-two year marriage is a long story, " Nora said. "It's ...it's a continuum with moments of drama, periods of stupefying boredom. Passages of tremendous hope. Passages of resignation. Once can never tell the story of a marriage. There's no narrative that encompasses it. Even a daily diary wouldn't tell you what you wanted to know. Who thought what when. Who had what dreams. At the very least, a marriage is two intersecting stories, one of which we will never know." To further illuminate her story of the secret wants and fears within the middle-aged heart, Shreve writes a story-with-the-story that parallels the profound tragedy of the main story. I whole-heartedly recommend this for fans of contemporary fiction.

A bittersweet reunion.

With her new book, "A Wedding in December," Anita Shreve once again demonstrates her skill at exploring the depths of love, heartache, guilt, and despair. This time, Shreve focuses on the wedding of Bridget and Bill, a pair of high school sweethearts who rediscover one another after spending many years apart. Bridget is battling breast cancer, and this wedding is a testament to the couple's fervent hope that Bridget will somehow be able to beat the odds. Coming together to celebrate this occasion are some of the bride and groom's former classmates from their years at Kidd Academy in Maine back in the seventies. The hostess is Nora, a widow who has converted her home in the Berkshires into a fashionable and successful inn. The wedding guests include Harrison, who has always carried a torch for Nora, Jerry, a Wall Street banker and a bit of a blowhard, Agnes, a single woman with a secret, and Rob, a world-renowned concert pianist. The one person who is missing is Stephen, a talented athlete and popular student who died tragically twenty-seven years ago. "A Wedding in December" gives us a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of Harrison, Agnes, and Bridget. We learn about Harrison's discontent with his marriage and his longing for Nora that has not abated with the passing years. Agnes thinks with some regret about the clandestine affair that she has been conducting with a married man for the last twenty-six years. Bridget prays that she will be well enough to enjoy life with her new husband and her teenaged son, Matt. Adding to the narrative's poignancy is the transcript of a story that Agnes has been writing about the survivors of a horrendous and tragic explosion that occurred in Halifax Harbor back in 1917. Agnes's protagonist is a twenty-seven year old eye surgeon named Innes Finch who is in Halifax to complete his medical training. Shortly after he arrives, Innes falls in love with his mentor's daughter, Hazel, who is engaged to another man. When Halifax Harbor suddenly explodes, the death and devastation that ensue alter the course of Finch and Hazel's lives forever. Creating this story is cathartic for Agnes, since she knows in her heart that she cannot control the direction that her own love affair will take. Shreve's characters ponder a question that is more relevant than ever in this age of terror and uncertainly: Should we selfishly seek to make ourselves happy, even if we hurt others in the process? Or should we try to be content with a "good enough" life that may not be as exciting and fulfilling as we might wish? I have always admired Shreve's thoughtfulness, her vivid word pictures that capture the beauty of nature at its most splendid, and her compassion for the human condition. "A Wedding in December" is a heartfelt and moving novel about the ties that bind us and keep us apart.