Grant Grinder's "The People We Hate at the Wedding" for People Clinging to Beach Reads and Grudges

"The People We Hate at the Wedding" by Grant Grinder (b Amer 1983) is a humorous look at family dysfunction, sibling quibbling and relationship fiascos.  Ginder's funny & irritating novel can't help us have a love/hate relationship with the crazy family with matriarch Donna, eldest daughter Eloise and Eloise's 1/2 siblings Alice and Paul.  Eloise is the daughter of Donna's first whirlwind romance & marriage.  Donna was a young 20+ who fell hard & fast for a Frenchman who provided an exotic & luxurious lifestyle nonpareil with her midwestern modest origins and back again with 2nd husband Bill father to Alice & Paul.  Life with Henrique was too good to be true.  Henrique c'est tres Francais.   Whose to say mistresses on the side are not okay?  Peut etre the American the wife, Donna who would not go for that and that may be her biggest regret.  The 2nd biggest regret maybe her 2nd marriage to Bill the salt of earth kind of guy except for his homophobic hatred which extended to his son, Paul.  Eloise was endowed with a trust fund that entrusted her life would be free from financial worry and filled with privilege.  That sounds like grounds to resent one's older sibling feeling she's always gotten the better deal.  There's more to explore in terms of neurosis, relationship disasters and self-combustion fueled with booze & drugs.   Alice & Paul don't seem to have it together at all.  While Eloise is the one whose always trying to please.  There's only so much disappointment one family can be expected to take.  "The People We Hate...." is a family fiasco extraordinaire.  We really do care for the characters regardless of their irritating shenanigans or maybe because their escapades are so outlandish.  Eloise is getting married in London which entails a family reunion.  This promises to be a wedding bash that is bound to crash.   Grinder was a political speech writer before turning humorous novelist.  Perhaps, his political speech writing background was grounds for finding absurdity in grandstanding.  "The People We Hate at the Wedding" is a beach book, guilty pleasure that you shouldn't hate yourself for savoring.  C'est la vie!