THE WEDDING

Summer is a season for weddings; this one, set on Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s, starts on the day before the wedding of Shelby, a beautiful, wealthy young woman from an established African-American family. Shelby is about to marry a white jazz musician, a cause for joy or consternation to different members of her family. The story makes its way backward and forward through the tangle of family trees and time, introducing a myriad of characters whose lives have led to this pivotal event. Cynthia Jones's rich, honey-colored voice is just right. She has the superb ability to actualize a character through the use of accent and dialect. She's also a fine singer and a good Bible declaimer. Dorothy West's sentences are as long and tangled as the family histories at the heart of this book; Jones keeps the narration right on track through West's thicket of words. L.R.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 01]