Dorothy West, a writer of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote The Wedding in 1995, 47 years after her heyday. I remember the tv movie, with Halle Berry, and picking up the book then and being disappointed that it was unlike the movie. But 20+ years later this book is a trip! There are a whole cast of characters but these are the characters that stood out to me:
—Lute McNeil- the philandering brute with 3 babies and 3 baby mamas who regularly sleeps with housekeeper and believes he can make any woman sleep with him and marry him, has the nerve to set his sights on Shelby and actively attempts to break up her wedding! Dude is wild!
—Gram- who once was the daughter of a rich southern plantation master, married beneath her and had a daughter who was an old maid that ran away to marry a black man. Then died and left her mother to live as a “colored.” Needless to say she was pissed and hangs her hat on the hope her granddaughter Shelby’s marriage to a “true white” will be the start of whitewashing her family back to its original glory…that’s the most racist mess I ever heard in my life!
—Clark-who has allowed his color and station in life dictate his love and led him towards a prosperous yet miserable life!
—The Schoolteacher-who is Clark’s mother married the professional doctor, bore him three sons and then faded to the background. However instead of wallowing in self-pity on the lack of love from her husband, girlfriend turned to the love money, starts buying buildings, and before she knows it is one of richest black women in Harlem. And when her husband finally notices her, they share an intimate moment (after years!) and the man dies in his sleep…well I be damned!
In retrospect the movie didn’t do the book justice.

Well written. Slow to develop and beginning was confusing.

I did not really enjoy this book but it was engrossing enough that I still caught myself sobbing at the end. It is a very interesting subject that I had never thought about.

I'm enjoying reading books from the Harlem Renaissance period. Most of them deal with inner feelings of the black or "colored" community. I think it's interesting many of the books talk about a subgroup of colored folks that are so light skinned, some can pass, but they refuse because they have pride in their identity. BUT they draw the line at marrying or associating someone black or much darker skinned, or even of the wrong occupation. I wonder if these pockets still exist somewhere, as i don't know if i have met someone with this mentality. I digress. This story was short and sweet, i really enjoyed the different interweaving stories. You get a lot of story lines in this short book, none of them feel too truncated, but i wouldn't have minded more. I liked the ending, as it didn't go the way i feared.

truly interesting book. excellent character development

4.5

3.5