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The Wedding
Grace Lumpkin’s third novel, The Wedding (1939), moved away from the proletarian novel toward a Southern style usually associated with Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, and Eudora Welty. Set in 1909, it tells the story of Jennie Middleton’s quarrel with her fiance, Dr. Gregg, the night before the wedding. Threatening to call it off, she is convinced to follow through, but not without gaining new understanding about her position. As Time Magazine wrote, “What makes The Wedding an original and provocative piece of work is Grace Lumpkin's attitude toward the ceremony. . . . Jennie surrenders, but only after she has discovered, by making eyes at the best man, that there is more than one way of getting her way.”
About the
Grace Lumpkin (1891-1980) was a radical author who wrote about racial inequality and oppression in the American South. Growing up in Georgia and North Carolina, where she witnessed the plight of sharecroppers and physical laborers, she organized adult night schools and became involved in the lives of farmers in the region. She moved to New York in 1925 and wrote for The World Tomorrow, covering the 1926 textile strike in Passaic, New Jersey. She became aligned with the American Communist Party and published her first story, “White Man, a Story,” in the New Masses in 1927. Her first novel, To Make My Bread (1932), made her a leftist literary star, a status she enjoyed until her break with Communism and return to religion in the late 1930s—a process she portrayed in her last novel, Full Circle (1962).
About the
Grace Lumpkin (1891-1980) was a radical author who wrote about racial inequality and oppression in the American South. Growing up in Georgia and North Carolina, where she witnessed the plight of sharecroppers and physical laborers, she organized adult night schools and became involved in the lives of farmers in the region. She moved to New York in 1925 and wrote for The World Tomorrow, covering the 1926 textile strike in Passaic, New Jersey. She became aligned with the American Communist Party and published her first story, “White Man, a Story,” in the New Masses in 1927. Her first novel, To Make My Bread (1932), made her a leftist literary star, a status she enjoyed until her break with Communism and return to religion in the late 1930s—a process she portrayed in her last novel, Full Circle (1962).
244 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1939
About the author
Grace Lumpkin
7 books1 followerGrace Lumpkin (March 3, 1891 – March 23, 1980) was an American writer of proletarian literature, focusing most of her works on the Depression era and the rise and fall of favor surrounding communism in the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 18, 2023
I found the most striking aspect of “The Wedding” by Grace Lumpkin to be the unique writing style. At first her matter of fact descriptions seem almost mechanical. Reading further, I began to feel that the author was like a film director describing to an actor concisely the thoughts and emotions of their character, also their facial expressions and body language, in a specific scene. The author is also able to describe the oppression of the black characters in a way that shines a direct light beam on the practices and attitudes of the time and place. After an introductory section, the story takes place almost entirely within a single day; the wedding day of Jennie Middleton and Dr. Greg. Jennie and Dr. Greg argue and the day unfolds for almost everyone involved with the wedding as a day of high anxiety that threatens for things to go completely off the rails. Having a day like this could cause one’s hair to fall out, or cause a nervous breakdown. Lumpkin’s development of personalities and interactions among the group is fascinating. She puts the reader into a moment and captures glimpses of fleeting human consciousness. The characters are reactionary and sometimes introspective. They often misinterpret or are oblivious to what others think and feel. It’s an interesting and unique view of human interaction. It’s also an interesting portrait of a family/community in post reconstruction, once Confederate, USA South.
May 4, 2015
What if Charles Dickens and Margaret Mitchell had a love child, you ask? The results would resemble this!
To wit: "The Bishop paid no attention to the raised voice nor the look of anger on Robert's face. He leaned forward in his chair and laid his white transparent hand on Robert's arm. 'I was delighted when you and Jennie told me the plans for her wedding,' he said. 'Even the thought of the little silk flags was pleasant to me. I am disappointed that we are not able to use them. But after all they are a part of our sentimental feelings for the past. The past is dead and all our rebellion and bitterness cannot bring it back. We can only look over the little mementos and sigh over them. Then why make all this disturbance...'" (185)
To wit: "The Bishop paid no attention to the raised voice nor the look of anger on Robert's face. He leaned forward in his chair and laid his white transparent hand on Robert's arm. 'I was delighted when you and Jennie told me the plans for her wedding,' he said. 'Even the thought of the little silk flags was pleasant to me. I am disappointed that we are not able to use them. But after all they are a part of our sentimental feelings for the past. The past is dead and all our rebellion and bitterness cannot bring it back. We can only look over the little mementos and sigh over them. Then why make all this disturbance...'" (185)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews