Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages
March 1, 2021
A former weddings announcement writer for the paper of record tells all. Former New York Times reporter and editor Doty, who now teaches journalism at the University of North Carolina, knows that readers are interested in one topic in particular, "the question that I know you bought this book to answer: how does someone get their announcement in" the Times? She addresses that question with entertaining, lightly snarky anecdotes showing how various people made the cut: Their monikers include "The Pretty Well-Known Asshole," "The Woman Who Wanted To Save the World," "The Junior Heiress," and "The Feminist and the Professor." Doty also chronicles her family's history, her lifelong fascination with weddings, and her own love affairs and path to the altar. She examines the history of wedding culture and coverage and duly addresses the necessary points about the operation of racism and classism. While her discussion of wedding movies includes a rousing tribute to Four Weddings and a Funeral and a connoisseur's guide to Hugh Grant, other digressions are less charming. A detailed report of the author's brief assignment in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina adds little to the primary narrative; ditto a long paragraph transcribing the names and details of couples married at the same church as her grandmother in the 1940s. The blow-by-blow account of a taxi ride from the airport to Doty's boyfriend's house includes a flashback to an earlier visit to a cemetery they happen to pass along the way. "I was fascinated how cemeteries seemed to thrive in a city that probably had to dispose of dozens of bodies a day, but where we were all crammed in, each longing for our own bit of green and sky. Why were New Yorkers just not all cremated?" The answer is unclear, but for a newspaper reporter, the author does like to wax on. Amusing and well-written, but half as long would have been twice as effective.
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April 16, 2021
Former New York Times editor Catherine Doty takes readers through her experience of finding love professionally and personally, in this engaging memoir. As a writer for the paper's weddings section, Doty spent her days confirming details of the lives of the rich and famous whose nuptials were slated to be featured in the section; all the while, she was searching for love herself. Seamlessly blending stories from her upbringing and the ups and downs of her romance with a fellow reporter, Doty breathes life into her memoir with these touching, often humorous tales. While she claims that she learned all she knows about love from the wedding pages, it's clear from her writing that she also grew up among a loving family and circle of friends. After years of covering weddings, brides, and grooms, Doty develops an understanding of love and marriage; she postulates, "Despite an industry pretty much dedicated to encouraging us to believe otherwise, these fancy weddings don't mean anything unless the love is real." She concludes by recounting her own path to marriage as a white woman and reflecting on the racialized history of domesticity. VERDICT Doty's love-filled memoir will delight readers hoping for an inside look at the wedding section, and fans of uplifting memoirs.--Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI
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