A review by sophward
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

5.0

I've been waiting to read this book since purchasing it and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter last year, and it did not disappoint. McCullers has created with great tenderness a story about a young girl struggling to find her place in the world who falls in love with the strangest of things - the upcoming wedding of her brother and his bride-to-be. Her passion, desperation and loneliness are almost painful to read at times, but only because they are so easily related to by anyone who was once 12 years old and full to the brim with burning hope and frustration with the world; more specifically, I believe, to a reader who was once a 12 year old girl. Frankie's chaotic personality is balanced with the ever-insightful Berenice, the family's African American housekeeper and one of Frankie's only friends - along with her six year old cousin, John Henry. The three of them provide for some of the most touching and somewhat philosophical scenes I've ever read as they pass their evenings in the hazy warmth of a Southern summer. Definitely a must read, and I can't wait to get to more of McCullers' work.