A Wedding in Great Neck

Family get-togethers gone wrong are fertile ground for dramatic fun, but McDonough (Breaking the Bank) fails to deliver anything better than a frustrating mess. Angelica, the 30-year-old baby of the Silverstein family, has invited her entire clan to attend her wedding to Ohad, an ex-fighter pilot, in Great Neck, Long Island. Unfortunately, not every member of the Silverstein family can be counted on to show decorum. Angelica’s estranged father is a ne’er-do-well recovering alcoholic; her brother Caleb is introducing his boyfriend, Bobby, to the family for the first time; her sister, Gretchen, is currently separated from her husband, Ennis, who’s also RSVP’d; and Gretchen and Ennis’s emotionally disturbed teenage daughter, Justine, is plotting to seduce Ohad and stop the wedding at all costs. As these volatile ingredients approach a boil, Angelica wonders if the event she’s planned so long for will ever come to pass. Readers will wonder as well when this plodding melodrama will get to its point. McDonough invites too many to the party; it’s hard to care about any of them. Agent: Judith Ehrlich. (Oct.)