We’re in the dog days of summer, as they call it. What to read as we try to make it last as long as we possibly can? This month’s Book Report has some suggestions. Summer is a time for weddings, and Alison Espach’s novel "The Wedding People” is set at a fancy Newport, Rhode Island, resort.
Phoebe has checked into the Cornwall Inn not realizing that she is the only person there not attending the wedding of Lila and Gary, two people she doesn't know. Phoebe has come to the Cornwall Inn intending to end her life. Her husband left her for another woman after several unsuccessful attempts to have a baby, her career as a literature adjunct professor at a St.
Louis college is stalled, and her cat died. As Phoebe is preparing to end her life, Lila, the bride, bursts into her hotel room. Lila is a whirlwind, talking a mile a minute about her wedding problems, demanding to know why Phoebe is at the hotel.
When Phoebe explains her situation, Lila is furious that Phoebe’s plan would wreck Lila’s perfect wedding. Lila has planned each and every detail of the week-long wedding celebration. She is a bridezilla, yet she opens up to Phoebe and they form an interesting bond that ends up with Phoebe becoming the maid of honor.
We meet the members of the wedding party and the family, and Phoebe even has a flirtation with a handsome man in the hot tub. The characters in “The Wedding People” are so well-drawn, especially Lila, who in lesser hands could have been a one-dimensional c.