Book Review – The People We Hate At The Wedding

The People We Hate At The Wedding by Grant Ginder (Flatiron Books) ISBN: 9781250095213

This is Ginder’s third novel, written from his home in artistically enriched Brooklyn, New York.

Alice and Paul abandon their personal problems in Los Angeles and Philadelphia respectively to attend their wealthy half-sister Eloise’s wedding in the picture-perfect English countryside. Paul resists reconciling with his mother who he blames for erasing his father’s memory after his death. Alice tries to convince herself that her affair with her boss, a married man, is justified.

Things come to an expected head at Eloise’s wedding, as they tend to do when family is thrown together under an inflexible banner of duty and ceremony.

Ginder writes both beautifully and economically, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Modern American novels leave me feeling dismissive of the challenges that the characters have to overcome (in a #firstworldproblems kind of way) and this was my experience again in this novel but I’m willing to accept that’s just my cynical African world view.

Justine Cullinan
3/5