The Member of the Wedding

Rating:
Summary: Obviously in the wrong age group...
Review: Carson McCullers has been my favorite author since I was thirteen and my father recommended I read a book by her. Now, four years later, I have read all of her short stories and all but one of her novels. By the reviews I have read, I believe maybe this book is not in the right category when it says "young adult" and should not be an option for a book report. Responding to this book with "whatever" and "no plot! " is not truthful and is a terrible injustice to it. This is a perfect "coming-of-age" novel, complete with the feeling of loss and the struggle to fit into pieces of a puzzle where you feel you do not belong. Typical McCullers - compassionate, painfully honest, and sensitive. While I'm obviously getting a little sappy, I do believe McCullers is the only author that I've ever read where I always feel like I am the protagonist - I felt like Frankie every word of this book, because McCullers creates the most realistic characters...let's be honest, kids - we were all "annoying", "selfish", "stupid", "unrealistic" and so on at the age of twelve.

Rating:
Summary: a membership of one
Review: My husband read _The Member of the Wedding_ in school but it was never part of any of my Lit classes; I only read it now for the first time. As I began to know unlikeable, lonely, awkward, and aggressive Frankie I was struck by the intensity of McCullers' writing and could see that she was/is a great author; however I was unable to understand why the book has become such a classic and that feeling lasted until the final page. We all know someone a little like Frankie or have been somewhat like her ourselves, but she is such an extreme character that I found it hard to sympathize with her even as I recognized her fears and loneliness.

After her brother brings his fiancee home and announces their impending marriage, Frankie decides that she is to be part of their lives after the wedding. Fully believing this imagined change in her circumstances, she dresses up and walks around town, reveling in her story and making serious errors in judgement which put her in danger. At this juncture I was still following along, waiting for the epiphany or turning point, but even after Frankie bravely extricates herself from a very bad situation (which could lead her to believe that she is an okay person on her own) none is forthcoming.

The wedding is very anticlimactic; we learn about it in the words of one of Frankie's only friends, the housekeeper Berniece, and one short paragraph in Frankie's distanced perception. Frankie really seems to be emotionally ill and the reader gets the feeling that nothing will truly help her; especially at the end when it seems that, in my analysis, Frankie is about to repeat her mistakes, having learned nothing.

Rating:
Summary: Why is this a classic?!
Review: Reading this in high school was torture, and I usually enjoyed the books we had to read. I've never heard a class complain so much about a book, and that included many bright, good students who usually took a real interest in whatever we were reading. It was so boring. It dragged on and on. Nothing would happen and then when something interesting did happen, it was over with in a few paragraphs. I don't understand why this is considered a classic or even something worthy for an English class to read. We finally dragged the truth out of our teacher - the school simply didn't have any other books available for us at the time. Our teacher had no other choice. Great.

Rating:
Summary: bittersweet coming-of-age
Review: I understand the cultural setting of this novel doesn't translate well into the 21st century, but it seems that perhaps many of the "reviewers" do not grasp the significance of the historical setting of the story.

A young girl growing up, motherless, and only with her father and housekeeper, in the mid-20th century south. Larger, close-knit families were the staple of this time frame, and not being part of one may have contributed to her being outcast and socially inept. Frankie had obviously grown too quickly from grade-school tomboy to awkward adolescent and had no close peers to learn from.

Anyone who can recall being 12 -- at least in a less jaded time -- will understand the feeling of being "special and different." Frankie knew something had to change, but was uncertain where to start. With Jarvis, her adored (and absentee) older brother, she found an icon to follow. It made perfect sense to her, that - now that she was turning the corner to adulthood, and he was returning from the service, she could renew her family bond with him.

Berenice tried to communicate the folly of this thinking to Frankie, but as with any rebellious youth, her advice was ignored. Frankie's father was very much a man of the times...preoccupied with his business and secure in the belief that Berenice would take care of his daughter.

The classical part of the story is the painful revelation of the truth which finally tames Frankie. The sad loss of her small cousin, John Henry, is obviously a metaphor for the loss of her own childhood - followed by the bittersweet acceptance of friends her own age, who Frankie finally "sees" with new eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: 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:
Summary: Horrible Book
Review: 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:
Summary: The Member of the Wedding!
Review: Frankie Adams, a 12 years old boyish girl, who is always left alone because she does not match with anyone. She is tall, has a hair cut like a boy, and is different from the others. However, only John Henry is her friend. This story goes back in time where there were war happening often. Frankie has a brother, Jarvis, who lives in a town called Winter Hill which is not far from Frankies place. How would you feel if you were a twleve year old girl loosing your brother, having no friends, getting ignored by everyone, and wars happening often? Would you feel terrified? lonely? angry? Would you feel the same as Frankie?
"Frankie closed her eyes, and, though she did not see them as a picture, she could feel them leaving her. She could feel the two of them together on the train, riding and riding away from her. They were them, and leaving her, and she was her, and sitting left all by herself there at the kitchen table. But a part of her was with them, and she would feel this part of her own self going away, and farther away; farther and farther, so that a drawn-out sickness cane in her, going away and farther away, so that the kitchen Frankie was an old hull left there at the table." Carson McCullers, the author, has used realistic details which gives the reader an image of how the story goes. She shows humor, passion, and sorts of emotional feelings. The problem and the theme of this book is that the author is trying to show the love and jealously of Frankies brother. The loneliness of being alone, the anger for not getting excepted by others, and the hate that she brings in this world.

Rating:
Summary: Not McCuller's very best, but close
Review: Classic coming of age piece with a twist: the main character, Frankie Adams puts a new spin on the term 'quirky.'
I would not classify this as a Young Adult novel, however; it's a little too subtle, too dark for kids at the junior high level to fully appreciate.

Rating:
Summary: Member of the Misfit Books
Review: 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:
Summary: Psychotic main character, excellent writing
Review: I suppose I would have enjoyed this book much more if the main character was somewhat more rational (read: believable). The main character in this novel is Frankie Addams, a twelve-year-old girl from a small town in the south who is at "that awkward age" and bored to tears. The only thing that even comes close to resembling excitement in her life is the fact that her brother (in the army during WWII and stationed in Alaska) is getting married within a week. Frankie somehow convinces herself that she, her brother and the bride-to-be are meant to be togther and convinces herself that the three of them will live an adventerous life together after teh wedding.

While the main character is probably the most illogical and annoying main character in any novel I've ever read (with the possible exception of the main character in "Love in the Time of Cholera"), the redeeming quality of this work is the style in which Carson McCullers writes. Even with a ...main character like Frankie, McCullers writes in a very enjoyable style. Although I never "understood" Frankie Addams, I did grow to like Bernice (the black cook) and John Henry (Frankie's 6-yar-old cousin). McCullers draws the reader into the setting and makes the characters three-dimentional.

While I would not exactly consider this a Young Adult "coming of age" novel, I would recommend it. I don't think the pace is quick enough to hold the interest on young adults, but I would encourage them to read this book. I would more strongly recommend it to People high school age or older, not because of the story, but because of the prose.