A WEDDING IN DECEMBER
By Anita Shreve
Little, Brown and Company, 2005
Near the end of my trip I spent a few hours shopping in Windsor. We had visited Windsor Castle early in our stay, and so I was used to the sight of a royal stronghold, complete with turrets and archery windows, in the midst of a bustling tourist center. On this afternoon, though, I was not sightseeing; I was gathering English gifts to bring home. I bought some nice tea (despite the unbelieving stares I had gotten from waitstaff when I asked for it after dinner, English teas DO come in a decaffeinated form … apparently all of it is exported with tourists like me), a few London T-shirts and a Beefeater rubber duck. I saved a visit to the local bookstore for last.
Title-gazing was fascinating. So many of the titles I recognized graced cover art I had never seen before. I had a chat with the bookseller about this and she agreed it was strange. The British cover of HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE was perfect, why did the Americans need a second cover? I, of course, preferred the American cover. A perfect example, I suppose, of the divide between British and American sensibilities.
Anyway, since I had read all my vacation books and because there was a sale on (the price was good if you didn’t do the British pounds to US dollars conversion), I bought myself a copy of Anita Shreve’s A WEDDING IN DECEMBER. It was entertaining in that tragic way I enjoy sometimes and the plot was intriguing (high school friends, reunited twenty-six years after their graduation, are forced to revisit the death of a classmate). Most importantly, the book was set in the perfect place for my return journey: Massachusetts (otherwise known as home).
Best,
Loree