A weaving and interweaving of relationships
A tale of love and marriage keeps Tulip Chowdhury spellbound
The Wedding is a richly imagined novel in which emotions of men and women branch out in extraordinary ways. Nicholas Sparks has the gift of sketching out human relationships with luscious blends of love and lust. There is Noah who seems to be living with his long dead wife Allie. There seems to be no love lost between the living and the dead. There is this belief in him that Allie comes to him as a swan that visits him in their pond everyday. Noah and the swan give a spiritual touch to the story. There is Jane, Noah's daughter, who after thirty years of marriage to Wilson finds that there is still much to be discovered about the relationship. And there is Ann, Jane's daughter, who loves Keith in her wild, romantic ways. Their love story is yet another rich chapter of the book. The story whips up with trouble brewing in the marriage of Wilson and Jane. The family suddenly finds itself on fragile grounds, grounds that seemed to be giving away beneath love that is suddenly lost in confusion. The neighbors too are caught up with the family's gains and pitfalls. However, each of the characters is shadowed by the other and we find a touching story of love and kindness coming out of momentary dark shadows. Marriages are like sacred temples. In it the relationship between a husband and a wife is supposed to be a life long bonding that is based on mutual love and respect. Wilson Lewis, an attorney, is suddenly faced with a crumbling marriage. He is vexed when he finds that he and his wife Jane are lost for words in each other's company. It is a midlife crisis, an alarming situation. Jane seems to think that she wants a way out of the marriage, the very marriage that has been a cherished dream for both of them. Wilson realizes that he has spent too little time at home and too much at work. No wonder his wife has been falling out of love. But Wilson is all the more in love with Jane especially when he realizes how he has left her alone. He regrets the past years and vows to win back Jane's heart, even if it means courting her back as he had thirty years back, a time when they had settled in North Carolina. Wilson forgets their twenty-ninth marriage anniversary. Jane is pained and decides to spend a few days with their son Joseph in New York. Putting the distance between them makes Wilson realize how Jane has been coiling away from him. He takes a break from his office just so that he can be beside Jane, hoping that Jane does return home. He thanks his stars when she decides to come back. From then on Wilson starts planning each and every day spent with Jane to be a special one. From here unfolds a heart- rending tale of love of a husband for his wife. Wilson starts giving little surprises to his wife, remembering all her likes and dislikes. They have three children whom he had been keeping at arm's length because of his work. In fact, for the last few years it has been Jane who has been looking after the children. Now Wilson makes it a point to talk about the children, to drive out to them with Jane. Time is said to be the best healer and after sometime Jane begins to sense the change in her husband. But she is afraid of the change and asks him if he is having an affair. Wilson is baffled at the turn of things and feels all the more adamant to make his plans work. Anne comes home one day announcing that she wants to get married within a week. Jane and Wilson suddenly find themselves totally absorbed with Anne's wedding. There are hundreds of things to be organized. The caterer, the venue, the wedding dress, the guests to be invited; all these leave the husband and the wife totally wrapped up with the wedding plans. Anne is particular about having everything in ways that suit Jane. Jane is touched by how much her daughter wants things to be right for her mother. In the meantime, Noah has a fall and her condition takes a turn for the worse. As Noah goes to the hospital things become uncertain about Anne's wedding. However, it is Noah who says that he has to see the wedding for it may be his last. The day of the wedding comes closer. Jane is driven into a frenzy with preparations for the wedding. Finally the great day comes. All the guests are there, the wedding cake is there and Wilson has even called in the best musician of the town. Just then Anne and her fiancé arrive. Jane hastens to remind her daughter that the bridegroom is not supposed to see the bride in her wedding gown before the happy bells ring. Anne smiles and says it is not her wedding at all. Whose wedding is it then? Jane is dumbfounded. The story reaches its pulsing climax with this question. The astonished reader too seems to fall to earth. And for Jane, this wedding happens to be the greatest surprise of her lifetime. The turn of events makes Jane the happiest woman alive. She is once more sure that she married the right man and will marry him again if she has to go back thirty years to the days of their first courtship. But there are so many other surprises for her before she can tell Wilson about how happy she is. She hopes that she is not too late to tell him that! The Wedding comes with a tale of how love can nurture relationships, how life can thrive when there is love. The author certainly knows how to interweave lives. The relationships among his amazing characters are perfectly articulated. They find their way in the tableaux and as the novel tumbles to its climax Sparks manages to pull all his irons out of the fire. This is the tale of a moving family drama. The characters are so real that they seem to be breathing with the reader long after the book ends. The reader is led by the hand into the lives and events that take place and when the book ends there is a contented sigh and a smile on the face of the reader.
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