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The Member of the Wedding (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by Carson McCullers (Author), Ali Smith (Introduction) "It happened that green and crazy summer when Frankie was twelve years old ..." (more)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (27 Mar 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141182822
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141182827
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,527 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > McCullers, Carson
    #86 in  Books > Fiction > By Period > 20th Century

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Product Description

Product Description

With delicacy of perception and memory, humour and pathos, Carson McCullers spreads before us the three phases of a weekend crisis in the life of a motherless twelve-year-old girl. Within the span of a few hours, the irresistible, hoydenish Frankie passionately plays out her fantasies at her elder brother's wedding. Through a perilous skylight we look into the mind of a child torn between her yearning to belong and the urge to run away.


About the Author

Carson McCullers was born in 1917. She is the critically acclaimed author of several popular novels in the 1940s and '50s, including The Member of the Wedding (1946). Her novels frequently depicted life in small towns of the southeastern United States and were marked by themes of loneliness and spiritual isolation. McCullers suffered from ill health most of her adult life, including a series of strokes that began when she was in her 20s; she died at the age of 50. The Member of the Wedding was dramatized for the stage in the 1950s and filmed in 1952 and 1997. Other films based on her books are Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967, with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando), The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968, starring Alan Arkin) and The Ballad of the Sad Café (1991).
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
It happened that green and crazy summer when Frankie was twelve years old. Read the first page
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Member of the Wedding- VERY entertaining, 9 April 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: The Member of the Wedding : The Play (Paperback)
Carson Mccullers creates a masterpiece in the adaptation and writing of The Member of the Wedding. Memorable characters are created through the dialog, and the significant meanings in the play are tied up wonderfully in an entertaining storyline. Frankie epitomizes youthfulness and insecurity, while still presenting herself as a unique character. Her mother figure and houskeeper, Berenice, not only teaches Frankie about life, but about living life as it should be lived. John Henry is pure mischevious innocence, and all the other characters complete the story of a family with problems that still manages to function. Mccullers tackles the issue of acceptance versus taking action to change ones situation through the events that surround Frankie and her friends, T.T. and Honey. The issues of adolescence are placed in a humorous light in the aftermath of Frankie's spoken thoughts and actions, while T.T. and Honey must face bigger challenges of prejudice and inequality. Personally, I thought the play was really funny, but sad at the same time. That's why I'm giving it a ten. It was a fast, entertaining read.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Slow, funny, touching, 13 Jan 2006
By A. Turner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Throughout the authors life she wrote about lonliness and love, usually unrequited. These themes are brilliantly realised in this small novel about a weekend in the life of Frankie, a twelve year old girl unsure of herself and the world. There isn't much plot, and in parts it seems to move on leisurly, taking time over small details, but you are never bored because every detail seems to be whipped up with realistic emotion and perfectly placed within the story. The language is similarily thoughtout, often it boarders on poetic, but than at the moments of highest drama Mccullers draws back into a declarative objective tone. This book feels so real, the charecters, and most of all the things the author puts into words that you have only felt before. I'm blathering, but in short BRILLIANT. Read and read again.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars DARK AND MELANCHOLIC COMING OF AGE STORY..., 26 Aug 2007
By Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This is a book about Frankie Adams, a twelve year old girl coming of age in the South during World War II. We see her world through her eyes, so that the reader gets a skewed version of the world around Frankie. Clearly all is not right with her, as her brother is getting married and Frankie thinks that she will be going off with her brother and his bride. Frankie spins a total fantasy around this concept. She does not think that two is company and three is a crowd.

Why does she do this? There are many reasons. Some of them are rather dark. Frankie's mother died giving birth to her. Her father has remained a widower, letting Frankie sleep in the same bed with him until she was about twelve, when he finally gave her the boot. Her best friend is her six year old first cousin, John Henry. He likes to sleep over, and when he does, he sleeps in the bed with Frankie. She caresses him when he sleeps, and even takes to licking him behind his ear while he slumbers. She also has apparently had a sexual encounter of some kind with a neighborhood boy, an incident about which she will not speak. The author weaves these details into the story, glossing over them, leaving the reader feeling shocked. This feeling is exacerbated by the almost casual interjection of these details.

There is so much emotional trauma in Frankie's life that it is amazing she can function at all. Also distressing to Frankie is the fact that she is isolated from children her own age. The neighborhood girls, who are just a little older than her and whom Frankie envies, shun her. Her father pretty much ignores her, leaving her upbringing to the housekeeper, Bernice. When it comes time to buy her a dress for her brother's wedding, she is sent off to buy the dress by herself. It is little wonder that the dress she ends up purchasing is totally unsuitable. Her feeling of isolation is palpable to the reader.

Although Frankie is somewhat of a tomboy, she likes getting dressed up, slathering on lipstick, and taking a walk through the town, calling herself F. Jasmine, looking older than her years. In this guise, she meets a soldier, who takes her for being much older. It comes as no surprise when it all goes horribly wrong. Yet, Frankie is evidently a survivor and manages to fend for herself.

The moment of truth for Frankie arrives when her brother's wedding finally takes place, but by then that event is almost anti-climactic, as events continue to buffet Frankie, leaving her more isolated that ever before. Still, she continues on, not seeming to have learned anything all from her experiences, an emotionally troubled child suffering a severe disconnection from the world.

This is a thematically complex story told through the jagged fragments of the life of a young girl, one who views the world in a disjointed, unrealistic way, her world view clouded by inner demons that are never given a voice. It is a story that is dark and melancholic, leaving the reader to ponder upon a life so young, yet so despairing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars She doesn't understand how the world works
Twelve-year-old Frankie Addams spends the end of a long summer sitting in the kitchen playing bridge with her six-year-old cousin, John Henry and the `coloured' housekeeper,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by E. Shaw

3.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing novel, humourous but ultimately too short
As can be gathered from the earlier reviews there is a lot to like about this book. It is well written and creates an excellent realistic atmosphere and location for Frankie. Read more
Published 3 months ago by H. Tee

1.0 out of 5 stars very boring
This book was very tedious and pointless. Frankie seems very unrealistic and stupid . . .the whole book is based upon a stupid fantasy of hers. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 1999

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