Book Review: The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder
Published June 2017
Flatiron Books
One-sentence summary:
Alice and Paul travel to London for the marriage of their rich and disgustingly fabulous half sister, Eloise.
Who do we hate at this wedding? Everyone!
They all suck in so many ways!
Alice is in the middle of a secret affair with her married boss. And she’s so full of spite against her sister that she acts out in childish ways.
Paul is an unsuccessful therapist who, in all actuality, is the person who needs treatment himself. His longtime partner has been pressuring him to have an open relationship.
Eloise is their half sister, wealthy from her father’s side of the family (the siblings share a mother). She is kind, generous, stylish, elegant; everything Paul and Alice can’t be. Their lives are falling apart and Eloise’s seems to keep getting better.
We soon see the cracks, though. Eloise holds it together on the surface, but inside, she’s simmering with thinly-veiled disdain for anyone not on her level.
Gaaaah, these people are so unlikeable!
I’ve often talked about the cathartic release of hate reading. Sometimes it’s so fun to read about people you can openly hate (…at the wedding). It gives us validation that at least we aren’t the horrible people they are.
I’ve gone into a few books ready to revel in a cast of unlikable characters and come out with warm feelings for them in the end. The Nest is my favorite example, but others like Modern Lovers come to mind as well.
And gosh darn it if I didn’t grow to like Alice, Paul, and Eloise, too. At least a tiny bit.
I get to have my wedding cake and eat it too with this book. There is plenty of time to turn up my nose at unlikable characters, but still have the warm feelings of wishing them well.
