Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2017
336 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
"Family dysfunction at its best. This novel is addicting and entertaining and I couldn't put it down!" - Jennifer Close, New York Times bestselling author of Girls in White Dresses and The Hopefuls
Relationships are awful. They'll kill you, right up to the point where they start saving your life.
Paul and Alice's half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at "it" restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins.
They couldn't hate it more.
The People We Hate at the Wedding is the story of a less than perfect family. Donna, the clan's mother, is now a widow living in the Chicago suburbs with a penchant for the occasional joint and more than one glass of wine with her best friend while watching House Hunters International. Alice is in her thirties, single, smart, beautiful, stuck in a dead-end job where she is mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable, affair with her married boss. Her brother Paul lives in Philadelphia with his older, handsomer, tenured track professor boyfriend who's recently been saying things like "monogamy is an oppressive heteronormative construct," while eyeing undergrads. And then there's Eloise. Perfect, gorgeous, cultured Eloise. The product of Donna's first marriage to a dashing Frenchman, Eloise has spent her school years at the best private boarding schools, her winter holidays in St. John and a post-college life cushioned by a fat, endless trust fund. To top it off, she's infuriatingly kind and decent.
As this estranged clan gathers together, and Eloise's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most in the most bitingly funny, slyly witty and surprisingly tender novel you'll read this year.
"Starred Review. Ginder (Driver's Education) takes family dysfunction to its hysterical limit in this joyously ribald, sharply cynical, and impossible-to-put-down examination of love and loyalty." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Ginder successfully captures the clash between people who are intimately connected yet deeply at odds. These characters are completely clueless and utterly self-absorbed yet highly likable, their trials and tribulations painful at times and joyful at others but always entertaining. Ginder's latest is a fascinating exploration of family dynamics and thecomplex way we interact with those who know us best." - Booklist
"Ginder has a gift for the gleefully outrageous, dishing out one over-the-top scene after another... A daisy chain of debacles makes time spent with people we hate good fun." - Kirkus
"A vibrant celebration of the modern family and all the crazy, hilarious and wild ways we love each other...This is the best wedding drama since My Best Friend's Wedding." - Redbook
"Witty and completely absorbing, The People We Hate at the Wedding is family dysfunction at its best - full of heart, humor, and jealous siblings. This novel is addicting and entertaining and I couldn't put it down!" - Jennifer Close, New York Times bestselling author of Girls in White Dresses and The Hopefuls
"Grant Ginder brilliantly captures privileged Brits clashing against semi-privileged Americans in the most hilariously cringeworthy ways. Cluelessly self-absorbed, appallingly outrageous, and so very endearing, these are characters I hope to be seated with at the next wedding I attend." - Kevin Kwan, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend
"Grant Ginder's smart, funny novel is madly insightful and contains some of the most delightfully difficult and fabulously flawed characters I've encountered in a long time. I found myself worrying about them as I drove to work, hoping things would turn out well for (almost) all of them." - Stephen McCauley, bestselling author of The Object of My Affection
This information about The People We Hate at the Wedding was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo Credit: Peter Schottenfels
Grant Ginder is the author of five novels, including The People We Hate at the Wedding (soon to be a major motion picture starring Allison Janney, Kristen Bell, and Ben Platt). Originally from Southern California, Ginder received his MFA from New York University, where he teaches writing.
Link to Grant Ginder's Website
Name Pronunciation
Grant Ginder: Hard G in "Ginder"
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