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A review by readingwithmuggy
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
5.0
I knew this book had been raved about but I actually had no idea what the plot was. Our main character Phoebe is going through a hard time. Between her husband’s infidelity and struggling with infertility, Phoebe loses all hope and checks into a fancy hotel to attempt suicide. Upon arrival at the hotel she soon discovers the entire hotel has been booked for a wedding of strangers she doesn’t know. After a run in with the bride where she lays out her intentions for her visit, the wedding people begin to weave their way into Phoebe’s story. Cultivating hope & honesty, this book was a beautiful take on the human experience.
I have so many quotes I highlighted so here are a handful:
“The doors open. The top floor. Phoebe is finally here. But of course, it doesn’t really matter where she is. She can be on the top floor, by the ocean, or in the small bedroom of her house. There is no such thing as a happy place. Because when you are happy, everywhere is a happy place. And when you are sad, everywhere is a sad place.”
•
“But that is how it happens, she realizes. One moment of pretending to be great leads to the next moment of pretending to be great, and ten years later, she realizes she’s spent her entire life just pretending to be great.”
•
“She had spent it reading instead of going out with her friends or on dates with men. And yes, sometimes she read too much. Sometimes, she read books instead of living a life, but didn’t that just mean that her life was about reading books? And couldn’t that be a life the way his life was all about floating on a river? Every night, she watched her father put on gear and wordlessly get in the boat and try to hook the same fish he’d fished for years and he never thought this was strange at all. But he looked at her reading Emma and said, ‘Go outside, live a little.’”
•
“Phoebe was the only person waiting in the dark to condemn herself for every single thing when the day was over. “Can you take a different approach?” her therapist asked her. “Can you sometimes just try to love what you hate about yourself?” She didn’t understand this question at the time. She didn’t understand how she could love herself. She didn’t understand what people even meant when they said they loved themselves. She honestly didn’t believe them. How could you love yourself? How could you love yourself when you know every single horrible thing you’ve ever thought?”
•
“‘She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day,’ Woolf wrote. And it’s true. How easy to be dead. How lucky to be alive, even for just one day.”
•
“And so Phoebe joins. Phoebe has no other option left but to join—she tried to opt out, tried to sit on the sidelines, tried to leave this world. But she is still here. So she walks into the group, and they celebrate her arrival, clap and twirl around her. She feels silly at first, but they make it so easy. They are generous with their enthusiasm. They give it all to Phoebe, hold her hands and bump her hips, and by the time the song is over, Phoebe feels so overwhelmed, so part of the group, she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. She looks in the mirror. I am here, she thinks.”
I have so many quotes I highlighted so here are a handful:
“The doors open. The top floor. Phoebe is finally here. But of course, it doesn’t really matter where she is. She can be on the top floor, by the ocean, or in the small bedroom of her house. There is no such thing as a happy place. Because when you are happy, everywhere is a happy place. And when you are sad, everywhere is a sad place.”
•
“But that is how it happens, she realizes. One moment of pretending to be great leads to the next moment of pretending to be great, and ten years later, she realizes she’s spent her entire life just pretending to be great.”
•
“She had spent it reading instead of going out with her friends or on dates with men. And yes, sometimes she read too much. Sometimes, she read books instead of living a life, but didn’t that just mean that her life was about reading books? And couldn’t that be a life the way his life was all about floating on a river? Every night, she watched her father put on gear and wordlessly get in the boat and try to hook the same fish he’d fished for years and he never thought this was strange at all. But he looked at her reading Emma and said, ‘Go outside, live a little.’”
•
“Phoebe was the only person waiting in the dark to condemn herself for every single thing when the day was over. “Can you take a different approach?” her therapist asked her. “Can you sometimes just try to love what you hate about yourself?” She didn’t understand this question at the time. She didn’t understand how she could love herself. She didn’t understand what people even meant when they said they loved themselves. She honestly didn’t believe them. How could you love yourself? How could you love yourself when you know every single horrible thing you’ve ever thought?”
•
“‘She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day,’ Woolf wrote. And it’s true. How easy to be dead. How lucky to be alive, even for just one day.”
•
“And so Phoebe joins. Phoebe has no other option left but to join—she tried to opt out, tried to sit on the sidelines, tried to leave this world. But she is still here. So she walks into the group, and they celebrate her arrival, clap and twirl around her. She feels silly at first, but they make it so easy. They are generous with their enthusiasm. They give it all to Phoebe, hold her hands and bump her hips, and by the time the song is over, Phoebe feels so overwhelmed, so part of the group, she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. She looks in the mirror. I am here, she thinks.”