Rogue's Wedding

Tami Oliphant is a Ph.D. candidate in Library and Information Studies at the University of Western Ontario.

Rogue’s Wedding is a gratifying romp of a tale about the perils of
trying to escape your destiny. On his wedding night in 1898, a lightning
ball chases Griffith Smolders around his hotel room, providing the
perfect foil for Smolders, a coltish and unnerved bridegroom, to flee
from his conjugal duties. He takes the lightning ball as a sign that he
is not ready to be a husband and that he married too hastily. To remedy
the situation, he decides to jump out the window, deserting his bride.

However, Avrice Smolders, née Drinkwater, is no ordinary, spurned
bride. Deciding that she couldn’t bear the condescending attitude of
her family if she returns home, she takes stock of her married life and
decides to track down the elusive Smolders, and make him pay for
deserting her. Along the way, both Griffith and Avrice have a number of
outrageous, surreal, and bizarre adventures that include identity theft,
sinking ships, fortune tellers, and cross-dressing.

In this battle of the sexes, Terry Griggs smashes Victorian ideals and
sentiments by inverting any assumptions and expectations of readers from
the outset. Avrice Smolders is a tour de force who proves that she is
more than her husband’s equal. Griggs’s inventive language,
unexpected metaphors, good humour, and stiletto-sharp turns of phrase
make Rogue’s Wedding highly entertaining and necessary reading.
Griggs’s wordplay is something to be savoured. Simply put, Rogue’s
Wedding is a delight to read.