{"id":7585,"date":"2026-06-09T17:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T07:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=7585"},"modified":"2026-06-09T17:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T07:11:06","slug":"the-wedding-people-by-alison-espach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=7585","title":{"rendered":"THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It’s a little like the search for the perfect handbag. It takes years, decades even. You try and then buy, hoping for the right size and shape with the ideal ratio of pockets, flaps and zips, thinking you have it right but knowing that this will only be revealed in use. At last, you realise that there cannot be an ultimate bag, the one bag that rules them all; you have three or four, and each one is perfect for a particular use, a certain kind of day. You go back to them again and again, always enjoying their particular rightness. But they grow shabby and you are occasionally tempted by other, newer, bags…<\/p>\n

And so it is with comfort reading. I go back again and again to the tried and true –\u00a0 to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Goudge, to classic crime and children’s literature, to my daggy old best-sellers of yesteryear. But I thought it was time I tried a new genre – the contemporary rom-com – and this book was pressed into my hand by an avid fellow-reader who loved<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

The Wedding People<\/em> tells the story of Phoebe, who arrives at a swish hotel in Newport (no, not the inner Melbourne industrial suburb; this is the one on Rhode Island, USA, home of millionaires and Gilded Age mansions) with no luggage, wearing a green silk dress and gold sandals. She’s come to a momentous decision about her life, but her plans are derailed when she finds the hotel has been taken over by a wedding party. Despite herself she becomes involved and forms an unlikely friendship with the young bride, Lila. The two of them fumble and stumble their way to happy-ish endings. There’s comedy, drama, pathos, sex, romantic confusion and feel-good family vibes as a million dollars is spent on the lavish week-long nuptials.<\/p>\n

I read it, quickly. I laughed at the funny bits. I appreciated the skill of the writer. But it didn’t do the trick. I wasn’t comforted, even though I liked it; I didn’t love it, and I wouldn’t read it again. It seems that as with handbags, so with comfort reading. I know what works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a little like the search for the perfect handbag. It takes years, decades even. You try and then buy, hoping for the right size and shape with the ideal ratio of pockets, flaps and zips, thinking you have it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7585"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7592,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7585\/revisions\/7592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}