Cassandra at the Wedding

De: Dorothy Baker

Narrado por: Morgan Hallett

Cassandra Edwards is a graduate student at Berkeley: gay, brilliant, nerve-racked, miserable. At the beginning of this novel, she drives back to her family ranch in the foothills of the Sierras to attend the wedding of her identical twin, Judith, to a nice young doctor from Connecticut. Cassandra, however, is hell-bent on sabotaging the wedding.

Dorothy Baker's entrancing tragicomic novella follows an unpredictable course of events in which her heroine appears variously as conniving, self-aware, pitiful, frenzied, absurd, and heartbroken - at once utterly impossible and tremendously sympathetic. As she struggles to come to terms with the only life she has, Cassandra reckons with her complicated feelings about the sister who she feels owes it to her to be her alter ego; with her father, a brandy-soaked retired professor of philosophy; and with the ghost of her dead mother.

First published in 1962, Cassandra at the Wedding is a work of enduring freshness, insight, and verve. Like the fiction of Jeffrey Eugenides and Jhumpa Lahiri, it is the work of a master stylist with a profound understanding of the complexities of the heart and mind.

©1962 Dorothy Baker (P)2018 Recorded Books

Excellent

What a book. I had not heard of it before it was recommended to me and now I don’t know why it isn’t considered a classic and one known of by all.

Meh

I wasn't a big fan of this one. Specifically, the main event on which the book hinges just sort of unravels with no lasting or explored impact.

Well that fizzled out

First, not sure the granddaughter's intro was necessary. Second, the book built up to something that never happened. The ending had such a pretty little bow. Dissapointing and trite.

struggled to stay with the story

Unlikable character from the start. I couldn't figure out if it was Cassie's personality and style, the author's writing, or the performer's voice that grated me. I was drawn to this book from seeming fascination and obsession by a number of writers and literature majors. There were a number of pithy turned phrases and lovely quirky observations, but it just didn't tilt me to one side or the other. Another reviewer said it best... meh!

Baffled really

To be fair I didn’t finish it, which is pretty rare for me. Perhaps it improves. Some good writing but the sisters’ relationship just didn’t make sense to me. Something was missing. Finally I just got tired of listening to their inexplicable conversations and moved on. I might try again another time.