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Graveyard Girl In June of 1982 a group of high school students in the town of Lee re–enact the previous summer's glitzy royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Organized by their teachers, the group receives extensive coverage in the town newspaper and the school yearbook. In this set of twelve linked short stories, each of the participants in the "Wedding of the Century" seeks out his or her own truth in the years that follow. We learn about the network of love, fear and intrigue that bind young people who shared this fairy–tale event. And we learn about the real–life demons they subsequently confront, the advantages they celebrate, the disadvantages they endure, and the temptations they face. For Tish, life is never the same after the tragic death of her best ex–friend Alex. Derek, the mock wedding's prince, ends up as a hockey star while Jewel, Diana in the mock wedding, has her own romance to play out with tougher consequences. And Naylor, who had the second-banana role of Prince Edward, meets up with an extraordinary stranger whose flight to freedom lifts Naylor from a hum–drum existence. The last word comes from the wry voice of Ginger–always the outsider–who snapped the mock royal photograph and who, years later, contemplates the lives of her one–time classmates from the vantage of the Lee town cemetery. Reviews "An impressive debut." |