The Wedding (Virago Modern Classics)

With a new introduction by DIANA EVANS'Timelessly cinematic, with painterly visual descriptions and pitch-perfect dialogue that ranges across class, region, race, age, and gender' Emma Garman, Paris ReviewSet on a bucolic Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s, THE WEDDING tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast's black bourgeoisie.Within this inner circle of 'blue-vein society', we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of their loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from 'a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions.' Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Mead Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York.A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community. Not just the story of one wedding, but of many, this compelling story offers insights into issues of race, prejudice and ide