To ease my boredom, I picked up the book I have been reading for two weeks. Anita Shreve’s A Wedding In December. And for some reason, the events of the previous week brought this taunt story to a more personal level. The central story occurred in the aftermath of 9/11. Tragedy given a more opaque light. Shreve was not being poetic when she described “the sense of the democracy of catastrophe. It knows no class or race.” We all saw this from Ondoy.
A Wedding In December revolved around the reunion of seven former schoolmates to celebrate the wedding of two of them. As with any reunion, the past is withdrawn from the drawer of memories and uncomfortable secrets resurface. In the same vein, the present is scrutinized with a mixture of disbelief, jealousy and pride.
Shreve is the master of layered storing-telling and this novel maximizes multiplicity to the hilt. Each of the seven characters carries their own personal baggage, both past and present. Tales of love lost and found, regrets and second chances, painful choices, sins not forgiven, hidden desires, life-long guilt and the torment of what might have beens. Add to this wicked brew the bipolar qualities of each character...strength and denial, courage and vulnerability, values and greed. And you have a plot at its thickest.
This heptagon of intersecting personas is further complicated by an underlying story about the Halifax disaster, seen in parallel with 9/11. The lives changed in one (literal) blinding second and the sacrifice of one fine young man. This story, by itself, is already heartbreaking.
As with other Shreve novels, this book explores human fallibility, notably at its darkest. But this novel stands out in the way each character fall victim to their own foibles but still evokes compassion and sympathy from the readers. We are as confused in their dilemma. We shake our heads at the bitter reality that one different decision could have changed an entire life. We are torn in defining what is good or what is right under these circumstances.
We are asked questions with answers that are highly biased and relative. Do you leave your family to pursue your one true love (duty versus desire)? Will you give all of yourself and your future for something that will soon be taken from you? Can you accept something that is wrong but makes another person happy?
On the grander scheme of things, the story makes the reader look inside himself and answer this middle-aged question: “Is this how you want to live the rest of your life?”
Shreve deviates from her usual formula of a surprise ending by laying down a crossroad as a conclusion. While some readers might be frustrated by this tactic, it is actually noble. The ending of each facet of this kaleidoscope lies on our personal judgement...what we think the characters deserve given their predicament.
If anything, this book shows us that everything is relative. What’s good for you may be bad for me. Yes, this includes relationships.
***
On marriage:
“One can never tell the story of a marriage. At the very least, a marriage is two intersecting stories, one of which we will never know.”
“In the beginning, one has such high expectations. And then life, in small increments, begins to dissolve those expectations, to make them look naïve and silly.”
Excerpts from A Wedding In December.
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