Wedding Pictures (1997)

In Wedding Pictures, Kip, a Manhattan businessman, and Bonnie, a D.C. defense lawyer, are determined to make a go of marriage, though they're surrounded by indifferent examples of the institution: cheating friends, ambivalent siblings, and staid elders. All the players have lots of time on their hands to gossip and reconfigure, thereby ensuring predictably wacky nuptials. Despite the upscale airiness of its premise, this lushly illustrated novel is worth reading twice, once for Jacqueline Carey's stripped-down prose, really just a series of whimsical and wistful dialogues, and once for Kathy Osborn's still lifes. Blocked out in gorgeous, kindergarten-fresh colors, these do the dirty work of describing the players' enviable painting- and book-filled lives (modern love is so trying). B+