Customer Reviews

The Accidental Bride: A Romantic Comedy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Janice Harayda obviously idolizes Jane Austen: Austen quotes preface each chapter, heroine Lily seeks guidance from and solace in Austen novels, and at times, Harayda's writing style seeks, rather self-consciously, to imitate Austen's. Unfortunately, Jane Austen this book ain't.

There are plenty of interesting things to say about the predicament of a woman swept toward the altar by familial and societal forces that overwhelm her better judgment, but Harayda just doesn't have the skill to elicit them. Over and over again, she settles for the snappy, Cosmo-girl one-liner. Worse, her characters are black and white cutouts, either all-good (everyone from New York) or all-bad (everyone who never left Ohio). There is no complexity or nuance there; for example, Lily's fiance Mark is so utterly nice and good and perfect as to be unbelievable and completely uninteresting. Likewise, her mother is so awful and carping and self-absorbed that that one wonders why Lily even speaks to her at all. (Contrast, for example, Jane Austen's characters, who exhibit their flaws as often as their virtues.) Harayda's anti-Ohio fixation is so relentless and overblown as to overwhelm the story; even the weather in Ohio (gun metal skies & tornadoes) isn't as good as the postcard-perfect sunny skies of the Big Apple. When the NYC homeless man handed Lily a flower (instead of urinating on her feet, say, as would happen in most of the five boroughs), I almost threw the book against the wall in frustration. And I'm not even from Ohio!

The novel does contain some amusing scenes and funny lines; the parody of a Martha Stewart magazine is by itself worth the price of admission. And despite the flaws described above, there is a sort of breezy charm that helps carry things along. If you keep your expectations low, and just want to while away some time on the beach or stairmaster, you might give it a try.

When I picked this book up at the library, I thought it would be so cool to read a book set in Ohio. I was a little disappointed because the author kept bashing Cleveland ~~ a city that has worked hard to reinvent herself into a metropolitan. But that's beside the point.

For every bride or bride-to-be, this book is definitely something that we all can relate to! Lily experiences last-minute jitters about getting married to the guy of her dreams. With three weeks to go, she decided that they haven't known each other long enough to get married ~~ plus she wanted to go back to New York. It is a hilarious account of an overbearing mother who is pushing for the wedding of the millenium, father-in-law who couldn't resist to show off his newest daughter-in-law-to-be, a fiance who is perfect beyond words, even hilarious accounts of the kids in there ~~ every bride's nightmare come true! ~~ Lily had to fight her way through all the entanglements to really discover what she really wanted.

I found it amusing ~~ it would have been even better if she hasn't kept knocking Ohioans down throughout the book. You can relate to Lily as she struggles with loving Mark but not wanting to get married to him just yet. You can roll your eyes at the sisters who are so snotty and suburban. You can shudder when the mother of the bride keeps insisting on carrying through with the wedding. And you will just love the grandmother who is practical and on Lily's side throughout this confusing time. You will shudder at some of the stuff at the bridal fair. Every bride will enjoy this light-hearted novel and find something in it to relate to.

And Lily will keep you guessing to the end. If you can get past the snide remarks about Ohio and the Midwest, then you will enjoy this book.

Reading this tale of a pathetic, dysfunctional woman and her stupid, tiresome life feels like rubbernecking a multiple car accident in which no one was wearing a seat belt. The "heroine," Lily, is clueless almost to the point of retardation, and her family and friends are two dimensional if they're lucky. It is impossible to suspend disbelief to the extent required to believe in one single exchange of dialogue or one single thought ascribed to any of these absurd characters. The only vaguely redeeming things about this irritating book are a couple of snappy oneliners and a Martha Stewart spoof, but that's just not enough to make it worth the price of admission, or even the time it would take to borrow it from the library....

Just a few weeks before her wedding to the most eligible bachelor in the area, Lily Blair decides that she can't possibly go through with it. Her mother refuses to believe that her daughter could embarrass the family by calling off the wedding at such a late date, and continues with the wedding plans as if nothing had changed. Her parents try to manipulate her into changing her mind, and even go so far as to hire a psychiatrist who reports back the results of their session to the parents.

Since the groom, Mark, is out of town working on a trial, she hasn't been able to break the news to him. The ironic thing is that they seem perfect for each other. He adores her, sends her flowers all the time, and understands her better than anyone she has ever met. They are both intelligent, articulate and share a love of literature. Lily is devoted to Jane Austen, and the book is punctuated with literary allusions and quotes from Jane Austen's books.

One of the reasons why Lily doesn't want to marry Mark is his family. His father is overbearing and his sisters are jealous meddlers. But the main reason is the potential loss of her self. All the women in this small town in Ohio are defined by their husbands...they are simply Mrs. So and So...if you're not married, you're nobody. And forget trying to have a career! The women should do "good works", work for the charity league and run carpools. She sees her life closing in on her, and yearns for the sophistication and freedom she enjoyed while living in New York.

The book is light-hearted, witty, amusing and charming and the surprise ending will please any reader. It was a quick, fun read; not deep thought-provoking literature, but nonetheless entertaining.

As a native Clevelander, I picked up The Plain Dealer's former book critic Janice Harayda's book looking for a romantic comedy. Was I wrong to expect one? Apparently spending eleven years in Cleveland was too much for her; hardly a page goes by without some thinly disguised negative reference. Nothing escapes Harayda's poison pen. There were a few sharp observations about Clevelanders and the nature of weddings, but on the whole her sniping was nasty and unwarranted.

Even worse, her characters were flat and so extreme as to be caracatures. The entire crux on which the plot turned was the fact that Lily couldn't wait to escape Ohio for New York (Shangri-la to Harayda's way of thinking) while her fiance would never relocate. Did Lily ever directly ask him? No. With such a horrid family, one suspects he might have willingly gone along, but Lily never considers that possibility. Thus the reader waits 275 pages for this thought to occur to her only to find it never does.

Harayda seems to see Lily as some sort of feminist heroine, but all I saw was a woman too browbeaten by her parents to take control of her own life. I found myself unbearably depressed by her lack of spunk or backbone. This was a thoroughly disappointing waste of paper. (I hope anyone thinking of moving to Cleveland won't be put off by this horribly negative portrayal of a wonderful city.)

When I read the desription on the book jacket, I was hooked. A smart woman, surrounded by eccentric charachters questioning the idea of conventional hapiness, what's not to like? The author has an impressive vocabulary and a knack for vivid desriptions which probably makes her a good journalist but it takes more to write good fiction. All her charachters are unlikable, and the ones that are meant to be unlikeable might as well have been copied from fairy tales they are so awful and unredeemable.

Speaking of fairy tales I had a really hard time swallowing the protaginists picture of New York, having lived there myself. New York to her is full of nannys in smart uniforms and sympathetic strangers rushing to comfort you when you get mugged. Please. The author needs to walk through the Grand Central subway station on an August afternoon and try to romanticize rude teenagers, leering perverts and puddles of vomit. For smart comedy that won't let you down read Otherwise Engaged or The Country Life.

This book was extremely disappointing. I should have been tipped off by the subtitle, "A Romantic Comedy." That's what you call a movie, not a book. You can almost hear the author thinking, "OK, Julia Roberts can play the lead..." Although Austen's name and quotations from her books are sprinkled freely throughout The Accidental Bride, there is nothing Austenesque about this novel. The characters are unlikeable and unrealistic. Their actions make no sense. The prose is dull and the book is riddled with typographic errors. If you want a funny, well-written book to read on vacation, get "Bridget Jones's Diary" and its sequel.

I find it amazing that this book got published, and shocking that it got fairly good reviews. It combines a wooden, schematic plot with a smug, self-centered, unlikeable heroine. The scary thing is that the author seems to regard the heroine as a shining example of modern womanhood. I found my level of irritation rising to outright anger by the time I got to the utterly predictable , yet completely ridiculous, ending.

I got seriously sick of the Jane Austen, as well as the author's self-congratulatory literary comments throughout the book -- I felt like the author was trying to show off a degree in Literature to the Unwashed. The ending was incredibly stupid -- not at all what I expected, and utterly disappointing. The reason for 3 stars and not 1 star was because it wasn't completely awful -- I did like to see how Jerry Springer-esque her views of her in-laws and family could get.

Lily Blair is having wedding jitters - big time! She is engaged to the third richest man in the second largest city in Ohio. She loves him, but with one month to go before the wedding she suddenly decides that she can't go through with it.

Her mother refuses to listen. The invitations have gone out, the food is ordered and besides, she missed out on a big wedding when Lily's brother eloped. She is determined that THIS one is going to happen.

Lily's fiance, Mark, is out of town working on a court case so she can't tell him of her decision. Until she can talk to him in person, she has to let everyone think that the wedding is still on.

Her future father-in-law has given them the house from hell complete with a doorbell that plays the Ohio State song. Her future sisters-in-law can't stand her and the main things to do on a weekend are the Catholic Mother's Association communion breadfast or on Saturday night, Ladies' Oil Wrestling Night.

The book is filled with many amusing moments with the final chapter being one of the funniest I've read in a long time.

So sit back, put your feet up and be prepared to have a good time as you watch Lily find her way out of a wedding.