The Engagements, by J. Courtney Sullivan

This was a book I had been eager to read for some time.  I initially had it in my Amazon cart, eagerly awaiting its release, until the geek gods stepped in at Book Expo America.  I was casually making my way down one aisle or another when I noticed a young woman (the author) quietly signing books behind a curtain.  Yes, boys and girls - I had found my wizard of oz!  I made a mental note to cancel my pre-order, and got on line for my freebie copy of The Engagements! 

Now, a fair warning to all who are reading this:  I already gave my copy of the book away to a friend.  Therefore, I'm writing this review strictly from memory.  (ie - this could get ugly, and rather silly).  That said, the book was...umm...err...good.  Yes, it was good.  The end.

Aww crap.  That's not going to cut it, huh?  Hmm...let's see.   The tale is told via a few different story lines (Three?  Four?  Same difference, really).  Each group of characters is dealing with different stages of engagements and marriages (and those blinding sparklies that go with them).  There was a major flaw here, though.  The characters (with few exceptions) sucked.  There were several moments when I caught myself literally rolling my eyes, and wanting to throw the book in the trash.  Whether it was the french woman who made it abundantly clear that Americans are the scum of the Earth, or the borderline-psychotic mom who wouldn't let her toddler daughter play with a dastardly Barbie (lest she get any false ideas about beauty), these people made me want to puke.  Combine that with the fact that the chapters were way too long for my liking, and you'll see why  I actually had to *work* to get through it. 

I'm happy to report, however, that the effort was worth it.  Without giving too much away, you'll see that these separate story lines weren't just randomly thrown out there.  There was no neat little red bow at the end, a la Jodi Picoult, but I would venture to guess that there will be more than one shiny little light bulb sparking over your head about 3/4 of the way through.  

This was a solid effort by a perfectly lovely author, who (whom?) I truly enjoyed meeting.  In fact, her previous books, Commencement and Maine, will likely make their way onto my 'to-read' list.  If I was going to be uber-critical, though (and why wouldn't I be...being from Jersey and all?), I would say that the despicable characters were a major drawback.  I know I mentioned this once already, but trust me - it's worth repeating.  Don't get me wrong here - not all of the characters were awful.  But, I found myself placing everyone into one of two schools of thought - I either hated them, or I was indifferent.  Blech.  Who on Earth wants to spend time with people you either loathe or couldn't care less about?  In this particular case, though, believe it or not, I say suffer through it.  I guarantee you, it will be less painful than listening to Great Aunt Tallulah and Uncle Tonoose fighting over how the stuffing should be made, while inadvertently spitting on the turkey you were waiting to eat.  As we all know, sometimes you have to get past the unpleasant surface stuff to get to the soft, gooey center.