A review by foggy_rosamund
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker

5.0

Cassandra and her twin, Judith, have always been very close, but when Judith moves to the other side of the country, and decides to marry, their relationship seems impossibly fractured. Cassandra is a fantastic character: at 24, she is a mixture of assertive and naive as she struggles to navigate the world without her sister and cope with her depression. Baker's writing on depression is amazingly, heart-breakingly astute. I was completely floored by this novel. It's sparsely populated, but each character -- Cassandra, Judith, their father and grandmother -- are so full of life and vigour. It's a privilege to get to know them even as we are sucked into sadness and despair. This book is so complex -- it's so hard to end literary fiction satisfyingly without being either cloying or disappointing, but Baker manages to create an emotionally-savvy plot that doesn't stumble once. This book should be read by everyone.