(All Persephone Books are in grey jackets, where they differ is the end papers which feature designs from the year of publication or thereabouts. This is the 1932 design of a printed dress fabric by Madeleine Lawrence used for Cheerful Weather for the Wedding.)
Category: Fiction/Novella – Paperback: 70ish pages – Publisher: Penguin – Source: My own shelves
First Published: 1932
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Simon at Stuck in a Book suggested dipping into the novella Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey this month to coincide with the UK release of the new movie based on the story.
Although I’ve linked to Persephone and included an image of the PB endpapers above, I actually read this in an older, Penguin edition where it was paired with An Integrated Man. It’s been on my shelves for years and I’d never read it so I was rather surprised when I took a look and saw that this story was just 70 or so pages in this edition (it’s 120 in the smaller format PB with an introduction etc). So I picked it up and swooshed through it last weekend.
The whole story takes place on one day, the day of Dolly Thatcham’s wedding, and is set at their grand house which happens to be in a very picturesque setting – up on the cliffs, looking out to sea and next door to a pretty little chapel where the wedding will take place. Dolly’s mother is appalling, her ex is present and tormented by their past together, her fiancee wants her to give up everything and go to live with him in South America (a lifestyle change that she is totally unsuited for), her family are squabbling, the guests are due and she has a bottle of booze that she’s drinking *way* too much of…
The story follows the action of the day: getting everything ready, bickering, hiding secrets, reminiscing. Things that should be said; things that shouldn’t. Will the wedding take place?
It’s a great setup and has so many possibilities for how it might play out and yet the story, short as it is, drags. I really couldn’t find a quote to share with you as so much of it feels like surface undercut with very heavy symbolism. Although there’s deeper, darker stuff going on under the surface it never really made much impression upon me and to be honest I can’t really feel too sorry for Dolly who has two unsuitable men to choose between but would rather get drunk than deal with it or even go out and find a third, more suitable one. She’s somehow depressing and un-engaging rather than vulnerable or lost.
In fact, I am sure it is the setting and the premise that are being borrowed for the film rather than the original story which is being fleshed out. Joking with another reader on Twitter I suggested it’s probably 30 minutes of plot and dialogue and 60 minutes of shots of pretty dresses, the house it all takes place in, the pretty little church next door, atmospheric shots of the restless sea and the timeless cliffs… And then I read the interview with the screenwriter which I linked below which says they switched out one very straightforward house-based scene with a rather inexplicable barn dance. Hmmm.
I’m not sure I can recommend either the book or the film to those who have similar tastes. I’ve linked to a handful of reviews below and you can see that they really range from 10/10 to ‘meh’. To this very divided chorus I can only really give it a slightly underwhelmed 6/10.
Rating: 6/10 (Book Review Scale)
Other Thoughts: Interview with the film’s screenwriter, Stuck in a Book, Reading 1900-1950, Bibliolathas (redux), Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, The Captive Reader, We Be Reading, Chasing Bawa, Sam Still Reading, The Worm Hole
List of books read in 2013 / Index of Fiction
January 26, 2013 at 04:28
Such a depressing little book, I thought, though I liked it a lot (which is an unsettling reaction!) for all its little descriptive vignettes. BARN DANCE???? No!!!
January 27, 2013 at 09:12
Hahaha, the film doesn’t seem to have done too well, must be all the purists horrified at the barn dance and walking out. ;)
January 26, 2013 at 15:11
It’s been some time since I read it, but I recall it being a bitter, mean-spirited little thing, not at all the funny diversion I was expecting based on recommendations.
January 27, 2013 at 09:14
Hi GD, I didn’t find it bitter so much as brittle but I agree, it wasn’t at all what I was expecting based on reviews I’d read!
January 26, 2013 at 19:05
It’s a long time since I read this, but I think ‘meh’ is definitely the word.
January 27, 2013 at 09:16
*grin* It was a curious experience trying to tease out my thoughts for a review…
January 27, 2013 at 16:46
That’s a very good point about Dolly and choosing a better man. I saw the family the way they were, especially the mother, and thought of how much pressure there would be to go through with the wedding, but yes, what about the before. It is pretty short so it’ll be interesting to see how the film works through that – seeing the trailers it looks like you may be right!
January 29, 2013 at 15:34
It’s really interesting that we see the outcome of some of Dolly’s decisions without ever really understanding why she made them or what other options she had. It seemed frustrating to me as a reader.
January 28, 2013 at 00:34
I never read this but I did watch the movie on a flight. I thought it dragged a bit because it took forever to understand what all the tension was about, but you’re right – very pretty settings and clothes :-)
January 29, 2013 at 15:36
Hahaha, it’s a bit of whirlwind in the story – people just whirl in, have pithy dialogue and you have to keep up with who everyone is – but I hadn’t realised they’d done that with the movie too. I saw the trailer and assumed they’d spun out some of the back story and slowed it down to make it more viewer friendly. I think I’d be too drifty on a flight to cope with that!
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January 28, 2013 at 20:52
Sorry you didn’t like this more! I do find it surprising that people think the novella depressing – I think it is so uproariously funny, especially the first time I read it! But humour is subjective, and I think if one doesn’t find this funny, then there isn’t much else to enjoy in it.
I shall report on the film in due course!
January 29, 2013 at 15:39
I look forward to your thoughts on the film Simon. I find my sense of humour so out of sync sometimes so it could just be me, the joys of not quite being English and all that. I think I prefer my dark humour more obvious, more er, Nabokov. Thanks for suggesting the book though, I might never have read it without a nudge and I’ve loved comparing notes with everyone. :)