A review by wendoxford
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
3.0
Another novel I ate at speed and which kept making me changing my opinions. Written in 1962 it is almost a dark yet neurotic comedy about marriage. We see layers of propriety and impropriety mixed the snarkiness of wealth. On these points the novel seems as relevant today as when it was first published. Compelling yet intensely frustrating.
I loved the first person intensity of writing, alternating between the twins. Cassandra unwillingly returning home for her twin, Judith's wedding grabbing the limelight from her with her toxic despair and self-absorption. Judith however remains a more nebulous character, and, it seemed to me, marrying to defy her sister's narcissism in the only way possible, by making herself "whole" by marriage rather than being twinned.
Throws up many issues surrounding family dynamics via manipulation and turning blind eyes, which is obviously hard wired into them with the ghost of the twins' dead mother hovering all around.
I loved the first person intensity of writing, alternating between the twins. Cassandra unwillingly returning home for her twin, Judith's wedding grabbing the limelight from her with her toxic despair and self-absorption. Judith however remains a more nebulous character, and, it seemed to me, marrying to defy her sister's narcissism in the only way possible, by making herself "whole" by marriage rather than being twinned.
Throws up many issues surrounding family dynamics via manipulation and turning blind eyes, which is obviously hard wired into them with the ghost of the twins' dead mother hovering all around.