Name: Cassandra at the Wedding
Rating: 3.5 (8 reviews)
ISBN: 9781590176016

Deborah Eisenberg

Dorothy Baker

A lesbian graduate student from Berkeley tries to sabotage her twin sister's wedding to a young doctor from Connecticut.

Cassandra at the Wedding

Edwin Lang

Cassandra engages us from the first, ‘I told then I could be free by the 21st‘and Dorothy Baker has us accompany this young woman, who while alone, confused and constrained is a delight and absorbing, on the journey with her and seemingly almost in a single intake of breath for 1st section of the book covering 133 pages. At one point, Cassandra, a little drunk on an empty stomach, rages at her sister ‘For you? Who are you?’ and one immediately gets the sense of her frustration. The older of the two twins, Cassandra is a force of personality, not so much extrovert, charismatic or the life of the party but in that she exists, is someone unique, matters. As the story unfolds she emerges witty, articulate, a little reckless, spontaneous and troubled: she and her sister lost their mother 3 years ago to lung cancer; she is about to lose her sister in a day in marriage. Her sister Judith is likeable and but is a shadow of her own sister and is conservative, staid, dutiful and more than ready to be the patient wife of a medical doctor - there is a brief episode when Cassandra offers Judith her half of a piano they had purchased when living together as undergrads and I wished Judith had been able to say yes: we all knew, Cassandra and readers, why stalwart and faithful Judith could only, at this stage in her life, refuse. I thought the book brilliant and exquisite with characters I enjoyed and found engaging and who appealed to me. They seemed interestingly individualistic and eccentric, a little skeptical and non-conformist, simple and full of irony, wit and joy, cultured and thinkers, family and while not unkind, exclusive. In a CBC Radio Massey Lecture “Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship, Adrienne Clarkson sketches the Greek’s seminal contribution to our practice of democracy based on Athenian beliefs as articulated by Pericles and his Aspasia. Freedom and independence seemed primary values with the citizen idealized as tolerant, liberal, engaging, loyal and courageous and yet restrained, eager to serve the state, even eager to eradicate poverty – that is anything that would crush or constrain the spirit. This had reminded me of the Edwards family and she also quoted something of Aristotle’s to the effect that ‘although each individual was not an excellent man, it is possible that when they come together they are better, together, and seem many hands, many feet, many perceptions, but, all together in a mass of citizens, become a single individual with respect to habits of character and intelligence. In reading this book there seemed among the Edwards amid this charm, bohemianism and freedom this sense of coherence and strength. When I first moved to the suburb I live in now, I met a mother, a Pilipino, at our Church whose son had killed himself because he had been unable to come to terms with his being gay. He had been her only child and I could not begin to fathom her grief. I had never met him but some years later directly experienced the loss of another fellow for the same reason and whom I had intrinsically liked. There was a point when reading Cassandra at the Wedding – and, not by anything really explicitly intimated by the story itself – that I happened upon Cassandra being lesbian, and there was one scene later on in which Cassandra’s doctor and analyst, coming upon Cassandra at a low moment in her life who spontaneously uttered “oh Darling’. This story was published in 1962 (by Houghton Mifflin perhaps) and I could understand the restraint. It is also a credit to being, in my case at least, a citizen of Canada and I believe the way most of us are now thankfully, that I shared Vera Mercer’s pain in seeing Cassandra’s own pain and her caring for her in the young girl’s moment of vulnerability; and, that we feel this still by the end: would this young graduate student, this wonderful ebullient Cassandra, be ok? But there was nonetheless a lightness all about and I found myself fondly recalling a brilliant but understandably very short-lived TV commercial (for Molson’s beer I think and that maybe aired in the 1990’s) in which two ruggedly handsome men get ready to make their play for two attractive women at the bar when suddenly one woman uses the top of foot to lovingly caress her partner’s calf, and we experience the men’s (and ours) initial shock, their quick acceptance and the Canadian-style mirth when one in jest (attempts to do) the same to his bro. The story though is essentially about Cassandra dealing with loss, and a doctor-heal-thyself she is not. Dorothy Baker is masterful in this story about Cassandra, her sister, the Edwards, a small number of bystanders. Amid this mass of humanity we all – readers and characters – seemed to be all Aristotle wanted of us: as individuals, striving and yet somewhat broken; and yet, all together, just wonderful and engaging, memorable and worthy. Edwin

- unrelated to the book itself but this is probably top 3 all time favorite book covers

- certainly not a bad read, and there were many moments i found really captivating... i guess i was just hoping for something more than what this had to give

- truly this might be a case of right place wrong time with this book. i think if i pick this up again in a few months or years i might have more positive things to say

- we’ve got stars named after us, and what’s wrong with that?

smile??

- unrelated to the book itself but this is probably top 3 all time favorite book covers

- lots of similarities with little women and the wedding people

- certainly not a bad read, and there were many moments i found really captivating... i guess i was just hoping for something more than what this had to give

- truly this might be a case of right place wrong time with this book. i think if i pick this up again in a few months or years i might have more positive things to say

- we’ve got stars named after us, and what’s wrong with that?

"Everybody has impulses. I have all kinds. Just about like yours. But I always hoped I could bring you to understand that there is such a thing as a whole life—a way of life–and a reason for being that is strong enough to protect you from every little whistling call of the wild.”

Part Salinger, part Gardam, this book is in some ways about the “paralyzing terror of reaching maturity.” Pure word-music, devastating, sharply considered, surprising and mysterious. This is why we read. I’ll be coming back to this one many times. 6 stars. 

Gabe Cortez

"Everybody has impulses. I have all kinds. Just about like yours. But I always hoped I could bring you to understand that there is such a thing as a whole life—a way of life–and a reason for being that is strong enough to protect you from every little whistling call of the wild.”

Part Salinger, part Gardam, this book is in some ways about the “paralyzing terror of reaching maturity.” Pure word-music, devastating, sharply considered, surprising and mysterious. This is why we read. I’ll be coming back to this one many times. 6 stars. 

Cassandra at the Wedding

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