‘The Wedding People’ Adds a Darkly Humourous Twist to the Rom-Com
Author Alison Espach talks wedding culture, Newport’s famous Vanderbilt mansion and her movie deal
Last February, Hollywood producers fought a fierce bidding war for the film rights to The Wedding People, a unreleased novel by creative-writing prof Alison Espach, who lives in Providence, Rhode Island. This pre-emptive buzz was noteworthy and ear-piquing for book and movie insiders, as it shows those in the know are predicting big, commercial success.
The book certainly has all the necessary ingredients: an elaborate wedding, a swanky hotel á la White Lotus, a series of serendipitous rom-com-esque encounters and … a leading lady on the brink of suicide. Bear with me: Like Espach’s The Adults and Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, The Wedding People also tackles heavy issues like death, suicide and grief, but with snappy dialogue and dark humour.
Unsuspecting readers are hit with an early shocker: Phoebe is the only guest at The Breakers – the impossibly extravagant “cottage” built in Newport, R.I. by the Vanderbilts in the 1890s – who is not there for an equally fancy wedding. (HBO viewers will know the opulent home from the historical drama The Gilded Age, which filmed scenes at the mansion.) After a chance meeting with the bride in the elevator, Phoebe drops a bomb: She’s come here to kill herself and tonight’s the night. Lila, the bride, begs her not to ruin her wedding week – yes, week – and when the maid of honour can’t attend, Phoebe steps in. As a complete outsider with nothing to lose, she spends the week meeting everyone in the wedding party, from Lila’s pushy mother to her jealous soon-to-be stepdaughter to – following a flirtatious encounter in a hot tub – the handsome groom.
As L.A. buzzed about her book, Zoomer talked to Espach from her home in Providence to discuss her complicated feelings about weddings, her not-so-complicated feelings on Newport (loves it!), who in Hollywood she’d cast to play her complicated lead and why some of her best and most meaningful heart-to-hearts have been with total strangers.
Rosemary Counter: The Wedding People is set in Newport, where I just visited. I was at The Breakers and everything!
Alison Espach: That’s awesome. Rhode Islanders are one of few people who vacation in their own state, so I’ve been to Newport many times. I went a few more times for the purposes of this book, as I only live 45 minutes away. I stayed at a few different hotels and tried to imagine Newport through Phoebe’s eyes. I thought, what would charm Phoebe about this town? What would be moving? But what would disappoint her? What would not live up to her expectations? I tried to ditch all my own assumptions about Newport and experience it all over again.
RC: Maybe wedding culture has got to me, because I made some assumptions about your book just from its title. Then, it absolutely was not that.
AE: I obviously have a lot of feelings about weddings too, having written a whole book about them now. There’s some fantasy involved, because you can’t actually get married at The Breakers, though I imagined Lila had some family connection who pulled a string to make it happen. I couldn’t resist The Breakers as a setting. It’s extremely decadent and a perfect spot for Lila’s over-the-top wedding.
RC: Phoebe and Lila are strangers who meet in an elevator at a hotel. In theory, they are very different and in very different places. In practice, however, they’re very similar. Do you agree?
AE: I do, yes. Figuring that out, for me, was the whole journey of the book. At the beginning, they’re clearly at odds with each other. Each woman only knows one thing about the other: Phoebe knows that Lila is a spoiled, demanding bride; Lila knows that Phoebe is a sad, lonely woman who’s here to end her life. But they connect, because they need something from each other. They’re both in a moment of transition, but they’re both scared.
RC: Phoebe blurting out her plans for suicide was the moment I realized I wasn’t reading a rom-com at all. It’s hard to write a funny book about suicide, but you did it.
AE: Why, thank you! This is my third novel, and they say three makes a pattern, so I’m starting to see commonalities. Most of my characters have some kind of trauma they have to face, whether they know it or not. This character Phoebe is an English literature professor, so she’s made a career out of always being the expert in the room. Someone like that, who suddenly realizes they don’t have the answers after all, interests me. I’m a professor too, so I relate to all those anxieties. That part all came very naturally.
RC: And it lets you name-drop literary figures as you go: Hedda Gabler, Mrs. Dalloway, Lily Bart. They all invoke certain ideas about women, marriage, depression, suicide.
AE: Phoebe’s finally reading Mrs Dalloway before she dies. I’ve read it so many times. In my 20s, I didn’t connect with it. I didn’t get why we were reading so much about her little party. When I reread it, it was astounding to me how much I missed. Virginia Woolf is so good at articulating these small but devastating moments that make up your life.
RC: Do you know that I creepily Googled whether you were married after I finished this book? It somehow felt imperative.
AE: I’m not married. Now you know.
RC: Is anyone happily married in this book?
AE: Good question. I’ve never thought about that. Maybe some side characters that we don’t get much time with? I don’t know. I’ll have to think about that.
RC: I guess happy marriages don’t make for Hollywood-worthy stories. Congrats on the movie deal!
AE: I’m very excited. I like a lot about being a novelist, but the thing I like the least is how solitary it is. You have to make all the decisions by yourself, as much as you try to rope other people into your story. I’m really looking forward to the collaboration in the film world; there’s a team of dozens and dozens of people all doing different jobs.
RC: In your wildest dreams, who should play Phoebe and who should play Lila?
AE: Oh gosh, there are many people I’d love to see. For Phoebe, maybe Claire Danes or Rachel McAdams? I think Kathryn Hahn would do a great job too, because she’s so great at dark roles but playing them light, somehow. It’s a combination that I obviously really love. I don’t know about Lila, maybe because I’ve spent so much time casting Phoebe in my head. Also, I don’t want to jinx anything.
RC: You dedicated this book, of all people, to “strangers.” Why?
AE: My parents will be disappointed about that – hah! – but I’ve always loved strangers. There’s something really special about a chance encounter at the airport or in a lineup where you feel a sense of freedom because you have no past and probably no future. It’s about the present moment and nothing else. I’ve had some of my most meaningful conversations of my whole life with strangers on airplanes.
