Weddings

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

Spanning a 31-year period, this novel centres on a series of five
weddings involving people known to each other or related.

The story begins in 1958. Paul and Hugh (a.k.a. The Shark) are both in
love with Catherine, but it is Paul who will marry her. The pre-wedding
preparations, the wedding ceremony, and post-wedding fiascoes are
superbly colored with the atmosphere of the 1950s. Flashforward to 1972.
Paul has divorced Catherine and is marrying Susan. Whereas we saw
earlier events through Paul’s eyes, we now see Paul through Susan’s
eyes. Ten years later we watch Paul, Susan, and Catherine at the wedding
of Paul and Catherine’s son. The couple at the centre of wedding
number four are Shark’s father and Catherine’s mother. The final
marriage involves Shark’s daughter and a stranger she meets on the
Internet who turns out to be Shark’s old friend Steve.

Weddings is an optimistic novel, well written throughout and populated
with delightfully idiosyncratic characters. “They are such artificial
celebrations,” Williamson says of weddings, “yet they have an
ineffable charm.” His novel, too, has an ineffable charm.