A Wedding on the Banks Book Reviews

A Wedding on the Banks by Cathie Pelletier Book Summary

Another bawdy, poetic, crazy quilt of a book..."—The New York Times Book Review
Amy Joy Lawler, the last of Mattagash, Maine's founding clan, just announced her engagement to Jean Claude Cloutier—an outsider! Now the typically tranquil backcountry town is buzzing with the news and everyone is gleefully anticipating the social event of the year.

As the guests roll in, Amy Joy's scandalized mother takes to bed in protest, the no-good Giffords plot to steal the wedding gifts and hubcaps, and motel owner Albert Pinkham devises new schemes to fill his cash register.

Meanwhile, on hearing the news, Amy Joy's aunt downstate plots to return to Mattagash for good against her husband's wishes, while her son carries on an affair with an Elizabeth Taylor look-alike behind the back of his Valium-addicted wife.

When this volatile assortment gathers in church on the big day, hilarious and wacky results ensue.

At once funny, insightful, and heartbreaking, A Wedding on the Banks is a perfect for fans of Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout), The Language of Flowers (Vanessa Diffenbaugh), and The Good House (Ann Leary) who will fall in love with Mattagash and its people.

More from Mattagash, Maine:

The Funeral Makers (Book 1): Mattagash, Maine: a quiet town rocked by scandal, seduction, mayhem, blackmail, and the only recorded case of beriberi on the entire North American continent!

Wedding on the Banks (Book 2)

The Weight of Winter (Book 3): Surviving the winter will be hard; dealing with each other is another story.

The One-Way Bridge (Book 4): Return to Mattagash—the anything but tranquil town where a mysterious dead body has just been found in the woods.
What readers are saying about A Wedding on the Banks
"a riot, so very funny and also sad."

"This book combines humor and true heartbreak in ways that few authors are capable of."
What reviewers are saying about A Wedding on the Banks
"When these folks get together, the resulting mix of zany comedy, pathos, and sense of place makes worthwhile reading."—Library Journal

 "As downright knee-slapping, laugh-out-loud a novel as I've read."—Washington Post Book Review

"A hilarious, high-spirited, it's-great-to-be-alive hoot of a novel."—Newsday

"A generous and genuine entertainment."—New Yorker
What people are saying about Cathie Pelletier
"Cathie Pelletier generates the sort of excitement that only writers at the very top of their form can provide."—Stephen King

"Nobody walks the knife-edge of hilarity and heartbreak more confidently than Cathie Pelletier."— Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls

"It is Pelletier's gift to be able to coax the drama from stony ground without artifice or sentimentality."—Boston Globe

"An ambitious, fearless novelist."—The Washington Post

"Cathie does a wonderful job of capturing [her characters'] moods and loves and losses, and yearnings…Her writing is lovely and so descriptive"— Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books, Mystic, CT

"Sharp stuff...Her sentences are powerful and unique as snowflakes."—New York Times

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A Wedding on the Banks (Cathie Pelletier) Book Reviews 2024

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