The Member of the Wedding
by Carson McCullers
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Read in December, 2007
Carson McCullers was an author who used her writing to search for God and to explore her own questions about sexual identity. In The Member of the Wedding her main character, who is called Frankie, turns 12 and begins to try to figure out how she is going to navigate her way around this big old lonely world. Will she do it with a “crew-cut”, wearing a Mexican hat and with “rusty elbows”, or will she seek adventure in exotic places with “Esquimaux” by train in silver slippers with h...more
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Read in April, 2005
This is my very favorite book and, in my opinion, far superior to "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter."
I was not an adolescent when I read it--I was 23--but I was astonished by how often McCullers was able to perfectly describe what I had believed to be indescribable experiences. In some ways I think that my attachment to the book grew from my ability to relate to Frankie's anxiety. The pace of the book, which all takes place during one stereotypically oppressive southern summer, become...more
I was not an adolescent when I read it--I was 23--but I was astonished by how often McCullers was able to perfectly describe what I had believed to be indescribable experiences. In some ways I think that my attachment to the book grew from my ability to relate to Frankie's anxiety. The pace of the book, which all takes place during one stereotypically oppressive southern summer, become...more
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Read in December, 2007
Enjoyed:
--WWII time period
--Berenice, the black housekeeper who is a storyteller and surrogate mother to the adolescent protagonist
--Descriptions of Southern food (eaten in kitchen, where much of the action transpires)
--The threesome of the adult female black housekeeper, the adolescent girl, and the six-year-old boy cousin, as a group
--brevity of book
Warmed up to:
--Slow pace of book, which was more difficult in the early part of the book
--Southern milieu (which can be good or ...more
--WWII time period
--Berenice, the black housekeeper who is a storyteller and surrogate mother to the adolescent protagonist
--Descriptions of Southern food (eaten in kitchen, where much of the action transpires)
--The threesome of the adult female black housekeeper, the adolescent girl, and the six-year-old boy cousin, as a group
--brevity of book
Warmed up to:
--Slow pace of book, which was more difficult in the early part of the book
--Southern milieu (which can be good or ...more
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Read in August, 2007
Poetically dense and perfectly timed novella, about so much more than a tomboy coming of age in the 1940s south.
I like reading it allegorically-- Frankie being Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jarvis/Janis being the Japanese who break down America's immature isolationist practices. Reading this novel for geographic and ideological boundaries is hugely interesting-- USA vs. the World, North vs. South, McCullers' South vs. Warren's South, the kitchen vs. the town, within the town: Sugarville vs. the nor...more
I like reading it allegorically-- Frankie being Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jarvis/Janis being the Japanese who break down America's immature isolationist practices. Reading this novel for geographic and ideological boundaries is hugely interesting-- USA vs. the World, North vs. South, McCullers' South vs. Warren's South, the kitchen vs. the town, within the town: Sugarville vs. the nor...more
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Read in September, 2007
At the tail end of WWII in the deep South, a precocious 12-year old has an existential crisis one summer. Or a preteen girl gets really jazzed about her older brother's wedding. It's all there.
The most unique thing about the book is how what is ostensibly the climax - the wedding - is kinda skimmed over. Maybe it's because I saw the movie first (taken from the play made of the book), and her screaming tantrum after the ceremony, landing her in the middle of the street sobbing. But then agai...more
The most unique thing about the book is how what is ostensibly the climax - the wedding - is kinda skimmed over. Maybe it's because I saw the movie first (taken from the play made of the book), and her screaming tantrum after the ceremony, landing her in the middle of the street sobbing. But then agai...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
Pre-teens and teens; those who remember that age
I read a review of this book that said "ugh, nothing happened." But it was precisely because nothing happened that made this an interesting and true-to-life book. Our heroine, Frankie Addams aka F. Jasmine Addams, is 12 years old. It's one of those endless summers when you are young and absolutely nothing happens, though you wait and wait and hope and hope. Near the end of the summer, Frankie's brother announces he's getting married, and Frankie constructs an elaborate fantasy in w...more
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Read in October, 2005
I am more partial to this book more than The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (another book by McCullers). There is one main character you are concerned about and they story is simple, despite this the characters had depth and I was able to relate and ponder on human nature. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter had many interweaving storylines and though I was given a dizzying high from contem...more
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Read in December, 2007
I was a bit disappointed in this, because I liked The Heart is a Lonely Hunter so much. I didn't go through the same sort of withdrawal from The Member of the Wedding. That said, it really wasn't bad. I probably didn't LOVE it because the main character was so odd and mostly unlikeable. However, she was SUPPOSED to be odd and unlikeable; that was part of the point. So McCullers accomplished just what she wanted to. It's a "coming of age" novel, I guess, but one wri...more
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I decided to pick this up from a recommendation on NPR by Augusten Burroughs. It's a wonderful look into the life of a young girl at the stage in her life where nothing makes sense and she is in constant wonder about where she belongs, and who she belongs to. She doesn't know why she is acting strange and her whole life seems to have changed with the seasons. He questions are strong and deep but her conclusions are young and naive, despite their conviction. It's a very short read and I'm not don...more
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Read in January, 1989
I love this book. It's hard for me to believe that on a rare trip to the mall as a young teen, this is what I picked to have bought for me, but it was a good decision. I got yelled at for reading it during Georgia History, also marking the book as special because I am so rarely bad.
For those of us who are awkward and given to feeling sad and lonely, this book resounds. I did write a grad school paper on it, too, so I could talk about more academically if forced to, but for me the real power ...more
For those of us who are awkward and given to feeling sad and lonely, this book resounds. I did write a grad school paper on it, too, so I could talk about more academically if forced to, but for me the real power ...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Madelyn by:
Nick
"She knew Lon Baker, and he was dead also. Lon Baker was a colored boy and he was murdered in the alley out behind her father's store. On an April afternoon his throat was slashed with a razor blade, and all the alley people disappeared in back doorways, and later it was said his cut throat opened like a crazy shivering mouth that spoke ghost words into the April sun. Lon Baker was dead and Frankie knew him."
I think the aspect I like best about this book is its little moments of ne...more
I think the aspect I like best about this book is its little moments of ne...more
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Read in April, 2008
Ah, such a wonderful book. It's strange to me I haven't read it before now, but I'm glad that when I experience a craving for McCullers' voice that I still have new work to explore and savor. Carson McCullers feels to me like a treasured friend from childhood, someone you may lose touch with for a while, but when you do realize you have a strong desire to connect again you find it feels natural picking up where you left off, that the connection is just as strong and delightful as you remember.
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Read in December, 2007
Such a vivid, cruel when necessary, and yet unhysterical account of a 12 & 5/6th year old girl. She's filled with intense emotions that she doesn't have names for, eagerness, desperation. This is a book that describes how it feels to be this person--how it feels to be a smart girl somewhere in the mush between kid and adult, engaging in adult ideas but with a child's facility. McCullers is brave, she doesn't shy away from the horror of being alive, and yet never loses her warmth.
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Jeorjia by:
Mayrecommends it for: Everyone
Well written and evocative. She puts a feeling in things that is kind of dark and nervous but not cynical. Her life story gave me some insight into why she wrote like this. I really like the characters and the dialog but there is definitely some repetition. She has alot of deep insight but often they come from the mouth of a 12 year old girl and it sounds a little forced. Overall I would definitely recommend it. Really want to read "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter".
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I'm surpised I haven't heard more about this book. The language is sometimes jarring because she repeats words within sentences and makes these big sometimes vague statements. (IE-Summer is wild and green. Frankie is a member of nothing.) But she also makes these connections that take you deep inside Frankie's head. Deeper than normal. Thought-process deep. Everything seems knowable deep. i keep waiting to hate it and have it feel clausterphobic.
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Read in March, 2008
A bored 12-year old Frankie becomes obsessed with her brother's wedding and decides she will accompany the honeymooning couple. I suppose the author captures how it's difficult to be a child when nothing interesting seems to happen to you. However, nothing very interesting happens in this book either. I give it 3 yawns! In addition, if my child ever did any of the things Frankie does in the book, I'd have her mental status evaluated!
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Has a copy to sell/swap
recommended to Jeanette by:
likes coming-of-age novels
A short novel (just 163 pages) of a twelve year old girl who is so BORED! one summer, she feels like she's suffocating. She decides (on her own) that she WILL be moving away with her brother and "the Bride". No use for her nanny, Bernice, to tell her the truth, she's just too desperate to hear. McCullers totally captures her impulses, desperation and self doubt....and makes you glad all over again that you aren't 12 anymore!!
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Read in January, 2007
This is one of my favorite books! It perfectly captures that lovely and horrible feeling of leaving childhood and becoming a woman. I feel like she captured in words those inexpressible feelings that I had as a young girl; the sudden slips from euphoria to sad-anger, the way I wanted to hide and parade about all at once. The longing for love without knowing what it is. Unbearable and lovely.
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Read in August, 2007
recommended to Ruth by:
NPR
I heard a review of this book on the radio that said "every word was precisely chosen and was the perfect word for that place" and that the book would be a great summer read. The writing style was very well done using very descriptive language. However, I did not feel a strong connection to the heroine who was a young girl trying to deal with the loneliness of adolescence.
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I read this at about the same time as "To Kill a Mockingbird" which might have skewed my perception a bit. I kept expecting Frankie to be more Scout. All in all, I wasn't a big fan of the story. The writing is excellent, of course, and it delves into all the deep racial issues that make a book into an American classic. But it's still not what I would call "a good read."
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.85 (910 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.86 (804 ratings) number of reviews: 82popular shelves
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quote
"sometimes his mind was like the pictures he drew with crayons on tablet paper. the other day he had drawn such a one and showed it to her. it was a picture of a telephone man on a telephone pole. the telephone man was leaning against his safety belt, and the picture was complete down to his climbing shoes. it was a careful picture, but after she had looked at it uneasiness had lingered in her mind. she looked at the picture again until she realized what was wrong. the telephone man was drawn in side-view profile, yet his profile had two eyes--one eye just above the nose bridge and another drawn just below. and it was no hurried mistake; both eyes had careful lashes, pupils, and lids. those two eyes drawn in a side-view face gave her a funny feeling. but reason with john henry, argue with him? you might as well argue with cement. why did he do it? why? because it was a telephone man. what? because he was climbing the pole. it was impossible to understand his point of view. and he did not understand her either."
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