"A marvelous study of the agony of adolescence" ("Detroit Free Press"), "The Member of the Wedding"--which became an award-winning play and a major motion picture--showcases McCullers at her most sensitive, astute, and best.
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"A marvelous study of the agony of adolescence" ("Detroit Free Press"), "The Member of the Wedding"--which became an award-winning play and a major motion picture--showcases McCullers at her most sensitive, astute, and best.
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Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $0.99, good condition, Sold by Dream Books Co. rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Denver, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books.
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Good. Gently used with minimal wear on the corners and cover. A few pages may contain light highlighting or writing but the text remains fully legible. Dust jacket may be missing and supplemental materials like CDs or codes may not be included. Could have library markings. Ships promptly!
Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $0.99, fair condition, Sold by Dream Books Co. rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Denver, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books.
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Fair. This copy has clearly been enjoyed-expect noticeable shelf wear and some minor creases to the cover. Binding is strong and all pages are legible. May contain previous library markings or stamps.
Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $2.01, good condition, Sold by Off The Shelf rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Imperial, MO, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books Classics.
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The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $2.25, fair condition, Sold by BookHolders rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gambrills, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books Classics.
Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $2.26, good condition, Sold by More Than Words rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Waltham, MA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books Classics.
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Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $2.59, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books.
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Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $2.61, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books.
Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $2.61, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books.
Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $2.61, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books.
Add this copy of The Member of the Wedding to cart. $2.61, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Mariner Books.
Has there ever been another coming-of-age novel as lovely as Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding published in 1946? Her portrait of the tall, gawkish, motherless girl Frankie Addams is a true, indelible portrait of adolescent angst: "It happened that green and crazy summer when Frankie was twelve years old. This was the summer when for a long time she had not been a member. She belonged to no club and was a member of nothing in the world. Franklie had become an unjoined person. . .and she was afraid."
During the dog days of summer in a small Southern town, Frankie's only companions at home are Berenice Sadie Brown, a regal African American domestic, and John Henry West, a small, big-kneed boy. Their kitchen conversations are marked by repetition and sameness, an "ugly little tune they sung by heart." Her father, a pale, uncommunicative jeweler, is largely absent, and critical of his daughter when present.
To Frankie, the world feels utterly lifeless, static, and imprisoning, "a green sick dream," and she feels separate from it. The protagonist expresses her feelings in melodramatic terms; she is "sick unto death." Everything she does is wrong and unintended. Like Frankie's summer, McCullers' narrative circles, reiterating motifs, composing a fugue of voices.
Everything changes when Frankie's brother Jarvis announces his plan to marry Janice Evans in Winter Hill. At the sight of the couple, Frankie longs for an impossible union, belongingness, and love: "They are the we of me." The story of the wedding has a "shape like song," that is, order, coherence. Even Winter Hill becomes a romantic image of Northern snow, coolness, otherness.
The novel traces Frankie's initiation into the sordid, unromantic nature of adult reality, but also her mature sense of having "things done. . .by a stranger a long time ago," evolving beyond her former child-self. In the process, she learns about mortality, friendship, "the shock of happiness," and the expectation of love. In the drama of her fear, desire, sadness, apartness, self-invention, and intuition of love as a "thing known and not spoken," Frankie Addams stumbles waywardly off the page, falling directly into the reader's heart.
