Seating Arrangements

Seating Arrangements (2012) by Maggie Shipstead. This is a delightful novel about a WASP family and their weekend on an island in Connecticut, during which one of their daughters is to be married. The Van Meters, headed up by patriarch Winn, seem at first an ordinary clan, but by the end of the book enough backstory has been filled in to reveal them as the weirdest of the weird. Shipstead has a wonderful capacity for shifting points of view, and she does so repeatedly as the Van Meters meet their in-laws-to-be, the Duffs. The Van Meters have two daughters, and the Duffs have several sons, so there is much mixing and matching as it is decided who will have sex with whom over the short weekend on which the marriage is to take place. Characters are introduced and their details are filled in as the novel progresses, and many of the characters are delightful in their eccentricity. In the end, nobody gets seriously hurt, and the marriage comes off with only a few minor hitches. It's all really funny, and this is not a book to be read with a heavy heart. It's just too enjoyable for that. Grade: A