A Wedding in December

A Novel

By: Anita Shreve

Narrated by: Linda Emond

Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

At an inn in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, seven former schoolmates gather for a wedding. Nora, the owner of the inn, has recently had to reinvent her life following the death of her husband. Avery, who still hears echoes from a horrific event at Kidd Academy 26 years ago, has made a life for himself in Toronto with his wife and two sons. Agnes, now a history teacher at Kidd is a still-single woman who longs to tell a secret she cannot reveal to the others, a secret that would stun them all. Bridget, the mother of a 15-year-old boy, has agreed to marry Bill, an old high school lover whom she has recently re-met, despite uncertainties about her health and future. Indeed, it is Bill who passionately wants this wedding and who has brought everyone together for an astonishing weekend of revelation and recrimination, forgiveness and redemption. This is Anita Shreve's most ambitious and moving novel to date, probing into human motivation with grace and skill.

©2005 Anita Shreve (P)2005 Time Warner AudioBooks

Critic Reviews

"One of the finest novelists of her time." (Boston Herald)

A Story Without Substance

I have enjoyed others of Anita Shreve's books, but A Wedding in December is boring and trite. The reader is totally uninspiring and adds nothing to a dull and predictable story line. Shreve seems to have taken her plot line from Danielle Steele, not from her own good inventions! A basic waste of time!

Lukewarm at best

I was disappointed in this latest book from Shreve, an author whose earlier books I have loved. As an earlier reviewers said, it's The Big Chill all over. I am sure there are moral lessons here, including the redeeming grace of love, but this is not a book for cynics or for anyone wanting more than a trite romance novel disguised as literature.

One of Shreve's Best!

The characters really come alive in this wonderful novel. The historical scenes of the Halifax disaster--a novel within a novel--are particularly vivid.

The Big Chill All Over Again

This didn't live up to expectations. Shreve is capable of much better. The characters aren't well developed, and the story within a story doesn't work well. Don't waste your book credit.

A beautiful narration...

...for a book that was was not Shreve's usual evocative work.

It is by no means a bad book and deserves savtboo

Very Pleasant

This was my first experience with this author. As much as I agree with some of the other reviewer's about some of the deficits of this story, I found it enjoyable to listen to.

The characters were interesting. I did not see their connection easily. It almost seemed like they would each have made good separate short stories but there wasn't enough reason or information to bring them all together.

The issue of Josh's homosexuality was dealt with nicely enough, but the real issues would have been too much to have been covered in this book. Agnes had two issues going on: the other book weaving in and out (that was really overdone and distracting although very interesting) and her "secret." She got much attention where Josh got so little.

Jerry was loud and brash, while I couldn't tell whether we were to be sympathetic about his wife or not. And then their ending just left me hanging.

Harrison and Nora were wonderful as a central theme as were Bill and Bridgette. But what was the need or sense of bringing Judy into the story line? And for Nora to have made her a partner seems a bit far stretched for me.

All in all, I did enjoy the listen. And even though it was not perfect, it has whetted my appetite to hear more of her work.

Painful read!

I plugged through till the end but what a boring audio read … and confusing. I really enjoyed “a change in altitude” so tried this one. What a disappointment!!!

Excellent as expected!

Anita Shreve has never disappointed me in the escape to the curious, splendid, pain and unknown of her writing. This is a devastating and delightful story. Do enjoy!

a quaint journey through past regrets

a quaint journey through past regrets. A group of high school friend meet and engage in brief affairs and justify their desires because they fufill past longings.

Story within the story - a better story.

I like the way this was writen - no problems staying with it. But I think this book could have really gone somewhere had the author not been so obsessed with afairs. It was just one afair after another - i felt like the auther was trying to work something out here. And, I found the Halifax story quite interesting, but wonder why the need to work another story in?