Wednesday, March 7, 2018

THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING- MARCH 2018 BOOK SELECTION


The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers totally immerses us in the life of Frankie, a.k.a. F. Jasmine, a tortured, bored and dangerously imaginative twelve year old girl on the tipping point of adolescence. Frankie lives in a small southern town with her distant, widowed father who is more an absence than a presence. Motherless, she is raised as best she can by the family housekeeper, Berenice.

Frankie is dissatisfied with everything in her life and longs for change, adventure and a sense of belonging. Her despair and discomfort in her surroundings and mostly in her own skin is so brilliantly rendered by McCullers that it’s painful to experience even as a reader.

Her older brother, who is in the service, is getting married. Deluded, Frankie truly believes he will take her on his honeymoon and then to live with him and his wife. She wants this so desperately that it becomes her reason for living. The novel takes place in the two days leading up to and after the wedding. Days during which Frankie takes unimaginable risks. 

Her lack of self-awareness and unbelievable naiveté makes you squirm. You want to teach her, cry with her and shake sense into her all at the same time. It’s no wonder this McCullers’ work is considered a classic along with the rest of her impressive body of work.


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