The people we hate at the wedding / Grant Ginder.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"It's for the same audience that flocked to The Nest, Where'd You Go, Bernadette? or dare I say a little book you might be a fan of, Crazy Rich Asians."
-- Kevin Kwan, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians

"Sinfully good."
-- Elin Hilderbrand

Entertainment Weekly's Summer Must-Read

A Publishers Weekly BEST SUMMER BOOKS, 2017

New York Post Best Books of Summer

Redbook 's 10 Books You Have To Read This Summer

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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly 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. Mining the rich vein of comedy and drama inherent in a lavish, over-the-top wedding, Ginder spins the stories of siblings Alice and Paul, half-sister and bride-to-be Eloise, and their mother, Donna, as they make their way to Eloise's nuptials in a quaint hamlet in the southwest of England. For Alice and Paul, the trip is fraught with a troubled family and personal history: they're both in poisonous and doomed relationships and see Eloise as the snotty daughter of a rich, absent dad, and Donna as a coldhearted widow who quickly ditched all remnants of their father after his death. During the boozy prewedding days, the resentment and secrets come tumbling out in outbursts and dangerously, hilariously bad decisions. As a happy ending seems to slip further out of sight, Ginder provides far better: laughter and hope. "Love may disappoint," Paul tells cold-footed Eloise before she walks down the aisle, "but that doesn't absolve us from the duty of loving." (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Paul is having a difficult time. He's working at a clinic helping people overcome their phobias, dealing with his boyfriend's growing dissatisfaction with monogamy, and continuing to avoid any contact with his mother. His sister Alice is not doing any better, stuck in a dead-end job, having an affair with her boss, and relying way too heavily on retail therapy to ease her angst. Just when they think it can't get more complicated, they receive invitations to their half-sister Eloise's wedding. Eloise, who lives in London and has led a life of privilege including private schools, posh vacations, and a trust fund is a woman they want to love but can't help hating. As the estranged family gathers in London, their hopes, dreams, prejudices, and jealousies take on new life. Ginder (Driver's Education, 2013) 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 the complex way we interact with those who know us best.--Gladstein, Carol Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

An extravagant wedding is threatened by equally lavish family tensions.Paul is a cranky gay guy, and he has a lot to be cranky about, really. He has a job at a clinic where he helps people face their compulsionsfor example, forcing a germophobic client who could have "been plucked from a year-old Talbots catalog" to stand in trash cans full of rotting food and maxipads. At home, his smug, controlling boyfriend wants to start inviting strangers into their bed for three-way sex. And his half sister, Eloise, who lives in England, has just sent out ridiculously expensive invitations to her weddingshe must have spent nearly five grand, as he and his other sister, Alice, determine in the phone conversation that opens the book. Paul initially refuses to attend the wedding for the same reasons he refuses to take his mother's phone callshe can't stand Eloise, thinks their mom favors her, and has been alienated from the family since his father's death. Meanwhile, Alice is not doing great either: living in LA, she dates a married man and relies on Klonopin to get her through the days, unable to recover from a miscarriage that happened years ago. Their mother, Donna, is not too broken up about the death of her second husband (Paul and Alice's dad) and still half in love with her first (Eloise's, who will be at the wedding). She is just hoping to smooth over all these problems and get her children together for the fabulous event. Ginder (Driver's Education, 2013) has a gift for the gleefully outrageous, dishing up one over-the-top scene after anothera meltdown at the compulsion clinic, a drugged-up gay sex imbroglio, a room service debauch, an unexpected and quite unwelcome kayaking trip. A daisy chain of debacles makes time spent with "people we hate" good fun. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Grant Ginder is the author of THIS IS HOW IT STARTS and DRIVER'S EDUCATION. He received his MFA from NYU, where he teaches writing. He lives in Brooklyn.

A few summers ago, on the train back to the city from a wedding, a friend of Grant's pulled out three bottles of pinot grigio which he had managed to snag from the reception, and which they proceeded to finish in about forty-five minutes. And, as the train winded its way toward Manhattan, the friend turned to Grant with glossy eyes and said "Okay, guys, people we hated at the wedding: go ." The next day, Grant started writing.