"Search," by Michelle Huneven

As an academic who has been on many faculty search committees, I loved the idea of a novel all about a search, albeit in this case, a Unitarian Universalist church’s search for a new minister. There are definitely similarities between the two types of searches! The novel, titled “Search,” by Michelle Huneven, is a wonderful examination of characters in a group (the search committee) as we get to know the committee members and other church members separately and as they interact with each other and with the candidates for the position. The main character, Dana, is a member of the church and a food writer; the other committee members are also members of the church, with various backgrounds, attributes, and agendas. Although they are progressive and idealistic, and are generally civil with each other, differences of opinion, personalities, and values provide much of the conflict (and interest!) in the story. I found the novel fascinating, insightful, and a joy to read. I have read other novels by Huneven, notably “Round Rock,” “Jamesland,” and “Off Course,” and find her an intriguing writer with great understanding of human nature, and with a subversive sense of humor.

"The Wedding," by Dorothy West

Until very recently, I didn’t know as much as I should have about the author Dorothy West (1907-1998). She was a member of a group of Black writers (including Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes), artists, and musicians in New York City’s Harlem, during what was known as the Harlem Renaissance. Her second novel, “The Wedding” (Doubleday, 1995), which she worked on for many years, portrays the lives of the Black elite families who lived in an exclusive African American area of Martha’s Vineyard. These upper middle class families were Black doctors, lawyers, and ministers, and were very conscious of their place in society, and of what was due to them. (I use the past tense here, as the story seems to be set in the mid-20th-century, but aspects of this society still exist in one beautiful enclave (which I visited some years ago) of Martha’s Vineyard, as well, of course, as elsewhere in the U.S.) When some characters in the novel do not follow, or threaten not to follow, their parents’ and others’ expectations about whom they will marry (someone of the same class), there are tensions and unexpected events. The story focuses on one planned wedding, as well as all the back stories and uncertainties related to that wedding and its participants, and to their family members and other community members. The story is compelling and even suspenseful. The novel’s contribution from a social perspective is the insights it provides into this specific and influential community of privileged Black people in the U.S.