cover image WEDDING SEASON

WEDDING SEASON

Darcy Cosper, . . Three Rivers, $12.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-1-4000-5145-8

Seventeen weddings in six months—what's a girl to do? Especially when she's Joy Silverman, who's perfectly happy in her relationship with Gabe and perfectly adamant about her refusal to ever get married. First, there was the breakup of her parents' marriage and her mother's subsequent emotional meltdown; second, there's the lack of any "empirical evidence that marriage is really all useful or effective these days, that it does anything for relationships and the people in them." But most of Joy's friends and acquaintances—not to mention her recently betrothed mother, father and younger brother—do believe in marriage. Thank goodness cynical Joy's artsy hunk of a boyfriend agrees with her that marriage is as outdated as "using leeches or bloodletting." But everyone keeps asking when Joy and Gabe will tie the knot, a situation that causes Joy no small amount of turmoil. So, from April to September, Joy and Gabe dance and drink and toast; in between weddings, Joy spends plenty of time with pals at the Pantheon, her favorite New York City watering hole. Despite the whirlwind of nuptials, Cosper manages to keep each ceremony distinct (some are formal, some involve paparazzi, some are same-sex commitment ceremonies). Cosper's dialogue can get too jokey, and there are a few too many self-consciously colorful characters. But Joy's narration is sly and sharp, and Cosper doesn't fall into the happily-ever-after trap readers of hip chick fiction have come to expect. Agent, Elizabeth Sheinkman. (Mar.)

Forecast: A blurb from Gary Shteyngart, who calls Wedding Season "a social comedy on a grand scale," should alert readers that this offering is meatier than the average bridesmaid's tale.