Dearly Beloved

Rating:
Summary: Amazing book, wonderful author
Review: My introduction to Anne Morrow Lindbergh was through "Gift from the Sea," a life-changing classic that I treasure and give as gifts to friends every year.

"Dearly Beloved" is a meditation on marriage as well as a novel told by various characters attending a wedding. It takes place in one day, as the bride and groom and their families gather in the bride's home for the ceremony and reception. It is not sugar-coated. Here is a realistic view of the pains and pleasures of this complicated sacrament we call marriage. I couldn't put the book down and read it start to finish in one night. I sensed Lindbergh's own conflicts about her difficult marriage to her famous husband, plus her feminist philosophies glimmer throughout the stories and are remarkably ahead of their time. (This novel was written in the 1960s.) It was moving, sad, wise, inspiring, uplifting, infuriating and more -- like marriage itself -- and should be read by anyone who's newly engaged or even thinking about getting married.