Cheerful Weather for the Wedding
Julia Strachey
5/5 stars
This novella recounts the events of one day: Dolly Thatchum's wedding day. She is nervous, her mother is flitting about oblivious, and another man is just dying to have a word with her.
Strachey has an amazing ability to describe her characters so that they are perfectly visible to the reader. The small details and the clever descriptions of actions and looks are simply perfection.
The plot itself is secondary to the character studies, but it is acerbically witty and profoundly real. Her metaphors, similes, and use of symbolism (oh, that tortoise!) were also astounding.
After I finished, I started it again immediately. Now that I knew everyone, I wanted to read it over with that knowledge. That being said, I'm not for certain that I "liked" it. I certainly didn't always enjoy Strachey's observations of these characters, as it seemed so personal, as if I knew them and hated to have their weaknesses exposed.
As a side note, I will say that I thought Joseph's explosion weakened the force of the story. (And was his announcement even true? How can one trust him at this point?) It didn't lessen the brilliance of the novella, though, or of Strachey's talent. I'm sad that she wrote so little.
