The Member of the Wedding

By: Carson McCullers

Narrated by: Susan Sarandon

The best way to experience this classic of the American South is by joining five-time Academy Award nominee and Best Actress winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking, Thelma & Louise) as she guides the listener on a journey through the anguish of adolescence and isolation.

"Rarely has emotional turbulence been so delicately conveyed," said The New York Times of Carson McCullers' sensitive portrayal of Frankie Addams, a disconnected 12-year-old whose only friends are her family’s maid and a six-year-old cousin. Desperate to be part of something big, she takes an overlarge interest in her brother’s wedding and dreams of following the couple on their honeymoon to the Alaskan wilderness. But as Frankie crosses into adulthood, she experiences the fantasy-shattering disillusionment that must come with it. This is a story for anybody who’s ever felt like an outsider and a natural fit for Ms. Sarandon, a master at creating authentic, sympathetic characters.

Explore more titles performed by some of the most celebrated actors in the business in Audible’s Star-Powered Listens collection.©1946 Carson McCullers (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Sarandon uses her voice well to convey all the emotions of a troubled girl who is searching for a place to belong." (Audiofile)

Growing Up

Would you consider the audio edition of The Member of the Wedding to be better than the print version?

I enjoyed it. I think the audio version is the better choice.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There aren't very many characters in this story. Frankie is the main character and the most interesting, most fleshed-out.

What does Susan Sarandon bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I really like her voice and her southern drawl.

If you could take any character from The Member of the Wedding out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Frankie's father.

Any additional comments?

No.

It's a Classic People

Would you listen to The Member of the Wedding again? Why?

Yes. Read this book in college and all of Carson McCullers' books. She writes haunting prose and creates real, raw characters who pull you into their loneliness. Susan Sarandon was a great choice (although I didn't care for her Bernice voice). I can't help but laugh at those who wrote it was slow and boring. It's a beautifully written work of art with myriad layers. It's obviously not for your typical beach reader. I enjoyed this book for the third time and it was a great way for my 13 year old to "read" a classic. Highly recommend. Would give anything to write as well as McCullers.

What did you like best about this story?

Frankie's painful maturation, John Henry's innocence, and Bernice's wisdom

Which scene was your favorite?

It's such a simple scene, but I like when when Frankie gives in and collapses on Bernice after dinner, before she goes back to town. You know she's not ready to let go and the compassion and realization is told so simply and beautifuly in that moment with few words. Breaks my heart and makes me want to hug my Mom and never let go.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The end of the story always makes me shed a tear for the loss of innocence.

“We all of us somehow are caught”

The twelfth summer of nearly thirteen-year-old Frankie Addams has been a "long season of trouble," and now she's caught in its never-ending August dog days. The imaginative tomboy has suddenly grown to 5’ 5" and is now too tall to stand under the bower she and some other kids have used as a stage for their dramas (of which she has written many, though never any featuring romance). Not that Frankie has any friends her own age anymore: she’s been kicked out of her girl’s club, and her best friend has moved away. She feels the world cracking and turning too fast. World War II drags on: the allies are in Paris and soldiers are passing through Frankie's hometown. Her cat Charles has disappeared. She has turned into a secret criminal, having pilfered a knife (she excels at throwing knives) and having sneaked her father's pistol out of the house and fired it. She wants to live somewhere else and wants to be someone else. Her summer has consisted mostly of hanging out with Berenice Sadie Brown, her family's ever 35-year-old African American cook with a blue glass eye, and John Henry West, her bespectacled, six-year-old cousin.

But as Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding (1946) begins, something has just happened to wrack Frankie with undefinable, strange, and disturbing new questions and feelings: Her big brother Jaris and his fiance Janice visited, shocking Frankie with their intimacy and beauty. They'll be married this coming Sunday a hundred miles away in Winter Hill, and Frankie and her father are going, and she's decided that she's not coming back home after the wedding, because she’ll go live Jaris and Janice wherever they go. “You are the we of me.” Berenice has seen all kinds of crazy love, from men who fall in love with ugly women to women who fall in love with cloven-footed devils, but "I never heard of anyone falling in love with a wedding." When Berenice warningly asks Frankie, "What if they don't want you?" she replies, "I'll kill myself. But they will."

The novel centers on the most crucial day in Frankie’s life, the day before the wedding, the last one (she passionately hopes) that she’ll spend in her southern hometown. The novel also relates Frankie’s memories of the ways in which she and Berenice and John Henry have spent the summer: playing bridge with a sticky deck, listening to the radio turned up loud, desultorily arguing with each other, listening to Berenice’s stories about her four husbands (each new one worse than the last), recalling the freaks at the county fair, and eating southern food (like Jumping Henry—peas and rice—ham knuckles, sweet potatoes, cornbread, and buttermilk). The novel also depicts Frankie’s wanderings around her home town, passing by the miserable prison, entering the shabby Blue Moon bar/hotel, shopping for an orange satin dress to wear to the wedding (tomorrow!), following the Monkey Man and his monkey (both of whom wear the expression of someone afraid of having done something wrong), getting her fortune told, and encountering a drunk soldier who thinks Frankie is older than she is. The novel does all that in three parts, each one featuring a different girl: Part One features Frankie (her nickname), Part Two F. Jasmine (her name to join Jaris and Janice), and Part Three Frances (her birth name).

The interactions between Frankie and Berenice and John Henry are funny, charming, and touching, the three people of different ages, races, and genders treating each other with honesty (as when Berenice tells Frankie about her wedding dress, “I’m not accustomed to human Christmas trees in August") and circumspection (as when Berenice stops short of telling the kids about something appalling her fourth husband did to her). Sometimes they hurt each other; sometimes they hold each other. Younger and more innocent than Frankie, John Henry steals the show, often plaintively asking, “Why?”

McCullers writes great descriptions, like "The sun drunk blue jays screamed and murdered among themselves," and “The sound was enough to shiver the gizzards of musicians and make listeners feel queer,” not to mention "The cars drove slowly in a browsing way."

She writes potent lines about life, like “We all of us somehow are caught. We born this way or that way and we don’t know why. But we caught anyhow. I born Berenice. You born Frankie. John Henry born John Henry. And maybe we wants to widen and bust free. But no matter what we do we still caught. Me is me and you is you and he is he. We each one of us somehow caught all by ourself. Is that what you was trying to say?”

Susan Sarandon reads the audiobook luminously, with a clear, compassionate voice and a complete understanding of everything going on above and below the surface, always managing to keep herself in the background while enhancing the text, never over acting, unlike the many professional actors who “perform” audiobooks, drawing attention to their virtuosity and distracting attention from the book itself. It's a pleasure to listen to her read the novel. She does a great Berenice ("dark gold voice" rough and low, earthy and wise, honest and kind), John Henry (high and sweet voice questioning and cute), Frankie (sensitive, self-centered, and imaginative voice between Berenice and John Henry in tone and pitch).

The Member of the Wedding is a southern novel (with the food, climate, pace, race, etc.), but also a universal one (with the painful and clumsy and frank development of an exceedingly sensitive and imaginative girl into an adolescent). People who like that kind of thing, along with lots of humor and lots of pain, all beautifully written, should like it.

Carson and Susan make a great team!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Member of the Wedding to be better than the print version?

Not really. Just a different experience.

What did you like best about this story?

The honesty.

What does Susan Sarandon bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

Her soothing voice.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The girl and the maid in the kitchen.

Any additional comments?

Anything by Carson mcCuthers is wonderful!

Carson Mccullers is one of the south's best.

Novels don't get much better than this for complexity, character development, pacing,dialog and point of view.

It's not about a wedding

What made the experience of listening to The Member of the Wedding the most enjoyable?

It reminded me how I felt at that age.....and a bit older. I remember the excitement of a family wedding and because it was exciting for me, I felt my role was bigger, But, like Frankie, soon realized that not everything in life was about me.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There are so few characters that it is hard to choose anyone but, Frankie. It was certainly hard not to identify with her.

What does Susan Sarandon bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I find her voice to be comforting. The time I spent with Susan as she weaved her story was just so delightful. I personally enjoyed how she brought John Henry to life...and Bernice as well. I personally would enjoy listening to her regardless what she was reading - how about choosing a text book next?

If you could rename The Member of the Wedding, what would you call it?

Well, it wouldn't be member of the wedding.

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed the actor series - thanks for encluding Susan Surandon.

A classic!

I loved this book. I’ve read it before so I knew what to expect so listening to the Audible version was a pleasure.

Unsatisfying ending

Beautiful addicting story with absolutely perfect narration- with a very frustrating ending. So for me, not worth it.

One of my favorite books of all time

Would you listen to The Member of the Wedding again? Why?

I have read the book at least four times, written reports on it, and mentioned it with several interviewers who have asked about my personal favorites. Susan Sarandon lends it an entirely new dimension.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Frankie [F. Jasmine] Adams is truly one of the most indelible characters in modern literature. Susan somehow becomes a 12-year-old girl when she's reading Frankie's dialogue.

Which scene was your favorite?

Any scene with Berenice, John Henry, and Frankie together talking about dreams, hopes, and expectations.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A lonely girl learns how to become 'the we of me'.

Any additional comments?

This is one of Susan Sarandon's great performances in any medium. It gave me six hours of pure pleasure. I love this new series by great actors. Next for me is 'The Sheltering Sky.'

Dated

Accurate description of growing up-rang true with my own-but hopefully girls are now given more latitude.