For Nicholas and Nala’s wedding, there’s the mother of the bride who is forced to face her failed marriage; the mother of the groom, who revisits the past – and an old love; the bride’s best friend who has lost the only boy she thinks she will ever love and with him, all her happiness; the bride’s cousin who fooled around with her boyfriend’s best friend (who inconveniently turns out to be the groom); and the groom’s sister who cannot understand her brother’s choice of a future wife.
Surrounding the bride and the groom’s happiness are the heartache, joys, hopes, dreams, and realizations of the people who care about them. It makes you think: does everybody get a chance at happily ever after?”
I’ve read only one other book – in full – by Ms Marla Miniano before, Table for Two. I had enjoyed that immensely, especially because of its interesting narrative and the premise of a single place being a silent witness to so many broken and mended hearts. So, I decided to get myself a copy of From This Day Forward. I had intended to read the book in two days, to give myself ample time to sleep the way I know I’m supposed to. I broke my body clock again though, as I knew I would.
From This Day Forward seems to me like a writing exercise – I do not think of this as a negative comment. It reminds me of Table for Two in the sense that as I was reading it, I was reminded of peach-pastel shades of the settings in my head, of lace and fragile petals and broken, breaking hearts that seem to be the signature style of Ms Miniano. But there is something very different about this newer book – the hint of it being a personal experiment of sorts, a thesis even.
A very successful endeavor at that. It is rare, I think, to have one person write from the perspective of so many perfectly-layered characters – accurately – in such a cramped space of 142 pages.
I would not presume to understand enough about literature to comment skillfully about the evolution of the author’s style. It is obvious though, that something about her work has changed for the better, the best. The essentials of Ms Miniano’s brand of writing are still there – the complex, sensitive characters and their wonderfully overlapping lifetimes – but the detailed imagery of the settings, the fluidity of the words, and even the black-and-white-and-gray of the gravity of their situations have matured immensely.
Although I wouldn’t know for sure, as I have not read much of Ms Miniano’s work – I do remember, however, seeing her on Candy’s Council of Cool some years ago. I am looking forward to her future novels though; I’m sure I’ll also read them someday.
Though I wish she would stop breaking my heart.
Ms Marla Miniano blogs at marlaminiano.blogspot.com
Book Cover Photo from Google Images
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