Jul 13, 2001 06:02 PM
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My mother to stay at my home recently and she always insists on reading. The book she brought with her was Danielle Steel’s ‘The Wedding’. Personally, I can never understand what she sees in this type of book but each to their own. I have not heard her complain about a book for such a long time!
The story centres on a twenty-nine year old attorney for the stars, Allegra Steinberg. It is a complicated plot showing how her life becomes involved in her clients. How, day or night, she is at their beck and call. Eventually, as with any romance novel, Allegra meets the man of her dreams, a writer from New York and her life changes forever. She has her ups and downs but as always, love conquers all. There are many sub-plots within the Wedding, making this book a little long winded from time to time. (I will not spoil the storey for anyone wishing to read the book).
A personal favourite sub-plot, however, is the adoption dilemma. It reminded me of the real life dilemma of ‘the Internet Twins from America/Welsh Couple’ and what happened when the tabloid press became involved. Steel looks at personal feelings as well as from the general public point of view, plus those of the prospective adoptive parent’s feelings, through this sub-plot. She explores lying and cheating to try and get to a desired result. There are conflicts and underhanded story telling to discredit the mother and thus Allegra’s family in the process.
'The Wedding' is the forty-eight best-selling novel written by Danielle Steel. It reflects prominent Hollywood, glittery show biz weddings. The traumas and the joys, the loves and the hates are all explored though the lives of Allegra and her prominent, well known family. The main plot, at times, becomes confused with the many sub-plots. I could be over analysing this book, but the flowery and wafferly writing style only adds to the confusion. I wonder if this is what Steel had in mind when she wrote the story; the confused writing style reflecting the chaos in Allerga’s life?
I will stop now before I really bore you, suffice to say this book of 401 pages and the twenty-three chapters are really long-winded. ‘The Wedding’ is not really an ideal bedtime read rather better suited for a beach holiday book. There is comedy and tragedy incorporated into the plot of 'The Wedding', but as to a clear story line, forget it. I would recommend a good old Mills and Boons for bedtime reading, because at least it has a beginning, middle and end. ‘The Wedding’ seems to loose track of this idea, causing the reader to become frustrated at times, and have to put the book down to give the mind a chance to recover, (as I have had to after writing this opinion!)
Publisher BCA, London
