- ISBN13: 9780618492398
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The novel that became an award-winning play and a major motion picture and that has charmed generations of readers, Carson McCullers’s classic The Member of the Wedding is now available in small- format trade paperback for the first time. Here is the story of the inimitable twelve-year-old Frankie, who is utterly, hopelessly bored with life until she hears about her older brother’s wedding. Bolstered by lively conversations with her house servant, Berenice… More >>
#1 by Elrond Hubbard on July 10, 2010 - 3:14 am
I’ve read all sorts of books throughout my educational career…from James Joyce to dry sociological texts. I’ve read books so dull I could feel them sapping my life energy.
Never before, though, have I had to suffer through a book as mind-numbingly awful as ‘Member of the Wedding.’
Mere words cannot communicate how bad this book really is. It follows the pathetic, worthless existence of Frankie, the most unlikeable, irritating, sorry excuse for a human being ever to disgrace a piece of literature.
This book reads like a bad Linkin Park video, and consists largely of Frankie whining about wanting to belong, and wanting to travel with her older brother, who is about to get married. The ONLY thing I can say for this book is that it is relatively well-written…obviously, Carson McCullers was a good writer. But Thomas Harris wrote ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and the he wrote ‘Hannibal.’ ‘Hannibal’ is a god-awful book, and it STILL doesn’t approach the level of putridity reached by this claptrap.
Of course, many reviewers would have you believe that this book is about the awkwardness/isolation/loneliness of acolescence. Bull. I was an awkward/isolated/lonely teen, and I did strange things, but Frankie’s actions are downright bizarre, inexplicable, and only serve to make you loathe her further.
For absolutely no reason, the author kills off a couple characters at the end, just to make sure that if you weren’t suicidally depressed by the book by that point, you sure wouldn’t have a reason to live after finishing the whole book.
Like I said, think bad Linkin Park song: garish, whiney, needlessly depressing, and completely pointless. There is no message here except that there is no hope, no moral except that life is empty, pointless, isolated, and lonely. I’m a big fan of literature/music/art that emphasizes such themes as isoltation and abandonment…and thus, I tend to enjoy such works even if they’re pretty lousy.
This, however, was the bottom of the barrel in cheap, exploitative, pathetic, useless literature. If you want to read something that deals with isolation/abandonment/loneliness, read Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Iceman Cometh’ ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’ or ‘The Hairy Ape’ I promise you will find all much more well written and moving than this garbage.
In conclusion, when I finished reading this vile book, I hated the main character, I hated the human race, I hated the author responsible for my suffering; but most of all, I hated myself, for subjecting myself to this bloated corpse of a novel.
Read it on the toilet, or better yet read something GOOD and save this to use as toilet paper. Consider it an appropriate afterthought.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by A Music Fan on July 10, 2010 - 3:56 am
I read it Sophomore Year of High School, and I was bored to tears. This novel is just plain old stupid. It is infact, painful to read. That is the problem with schools today; they force students to read dull and boring material. Well this book is dull and boring material.
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by Anonymous on July 10, 2010 - 6:10 am
okay so i thought this book was going to be an easy read, since it looked so short. it was perfect for getting some end of the summer reading cramming done. i thought it’d be done with in an hour, which is usually how long it takes me to read books this length. WRONG. the story was so confusing that i read the same page over and over, it had absolutely no plot, and the whole thing was just so dull that before i could turn one page i would be falling asleep. And then, at sometimes, things are just so sudden and outrageous its like,”whoa, where did THIS come from! ” that i just wanted to throw it against a wall, and that is exactly what i did. please, please do not read this book. its not worth your time!
Rating: 1 / 5
#4 by Anonymous on July 10, 2010 - 6:37 am
This book is simply terrible. I had to read it for summer reading, but this book is simply awful. It’s now collecting dust upon my bookshelf, where it shall remain for quite some time. This book is all about a messed-up Frankie Addams, who goes through three phases of her life, including going by different names. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. Sure it has a theme, but the plot is terrible and the girl is clearly in need of mental help. Seriously, she uses knives to get splinters out of her feet, threatens to throw knives at people, insists that her brother take her on the HONEYMOON (!!!) and allow herself to live with his wife and himself, starts to date at the age of 12, drinks at the age of 12 and hits her date over the head with a water pitcher. But to each their own. If you wish to read the book, go ahead and knock yourself out!
Rating: 1 / 5
#5 by Anonymous on July 10, 2010 - 7:35 am
The character wishes she could kill her self, and in truth, I wish she had. She hates the world and hates herself. At one point she smacks a guy she just met over the head with a water jug, killing him. She also wants to smash a frying pan on the head of her little cousin, and trys too…
Rating: 1 / 5