The Member of the Wedding
by Carson McCullers
List Price:
Our Price: $3.95
You Save: $4.00 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Carson McCullersEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-08-13
ISBN: 0618492399
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Mariner Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780618492398
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Member of the Wedding
Book Review: A Disturbingly Entertaining One Day Read
Summary: 4 Stars
Carson McCullers twists and wrings every prickled feeling out of her young protagonist into a disturbingly entertaining one-day read. The Member of the Wedding is a slow, detailed painting of only two days in the life of twelve year old Frankie Addams: the miserable, sour August day in Georgia when she hears that her brother is getting married, and the eventful hours she spends roaming her town on the day before the wedding.
McCullers does a compelling job of coaxing the reader into the frustrated, tortured world of Frankie's mind. We mourn with her on the subject of her unfortunate height and hideous crew haircut, which cast her from the petty adolescent society. We alternately resent and pity her pathetic six-year-old cousin John Henry West, and strain with her to win even a fleeting moment of respect from her distant watchmaking father. It is her relationship with Berenice, the family's cook and babysitter, that is the most vivid and human. If not for Berenice's sensible and tart remarks, I would have lost patience with Frankie and the book quickly.
The few complaints I have could not be remedied without taking the unique edge off of the book's message. At times it is difficult to follow Frankie in her delusional dreams of becoming part of her brother's new family. In reality, the book has very little to do with the wedding; it is glossed over in a page or two, the concentration being more on the great expectations and the subsequent downfall. I do wish that there had been more background with the relationship between Frankie and Jarvis (her brother), which would have made her fantasies of running off with him more understandable. As it was, they were very nearly strangers and I was frustrated with Frankie for being so stupid that she thought there was even a possibility of being a part of their post-wedding lives. The title is a bit misleading as well; member of the wedding connotes actually being in the wedding party, and Frankie was merely an observer. There are also incongruities in relation to Frankie's age throughout the book, which may actually serve more to highlight both the child and the teenager in her. For instance, the tantrum she throws when she is not included on the honeymoon seems ridiculously childish, yet she remains composed as she drinks beer in a seedy bar with a drunken soldier. It's too bad the book deals in such delicious subtlety and psychological darkness, or it would be wonderful for readers who are closer to adolescence themselves. As it is, the book is more suited to readers older than sixteen, at least.
All in all, this piece conveyed beautifully many of the painful themes of humanity and the life of a young, freakish girl desperately trying to find her place in the world. A tasty read that you won't be able to put down if you enjoy gnawing on rich, real human themes.
Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.15
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.85
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $4.60
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Virgin Suicides: A Novelby Jeffrey Eugenides
Picador; Published: 2009-04-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.09
Price in other shops:
The Old Order: Stories of the Southby Katherine Anne Porter
Mariner Books; Published: 1955-08-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.35
Price in other shops:
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Storiesby Flannery O'Connor
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; Published: 1977-08-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.94
Price in other shops:
Drowned Boy: Stories (Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction)by Jerry Gabriel
Sarabande Books; Published: 2010-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.83
Price in other shops:
The Collected Stories of Eudora Weltyby Eudora Welty
Harcourt Brace; Published: 1982-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops:
Giovanni's Roomby James Baldwin
Delta; Published: 2000-06-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.73
Price in other shops:
The Folded Leafby William Maxwell
Vintage; Published: 1996-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.54
Price in other shops:
The Bell Jarby Sylvia Plath
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2006-10-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Storiesby Carson McCullers
Mariner Books; Published: 2005-04-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.19
Price in other shops:
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club)by Carson McCullers
Mariner Books; Mariner; Published: 2004-04-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.72
Price in other shops: