Book Review: Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane

Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: May 30, 2023
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Two grooms. One mother of a problem.

Barnett Durang has a secret. No, not THAT secret. His widowed mother has long known he’s gay. The secret is Barnett is getting married. At his mother’s farm. In their small Louisiana town. She just doesn’t know it yet.

It’ll be an intimate affair. Just two hundred or so of the most fabulous folks Barnett is shipping in from the “heathen coasts,” as Mom likes to call them, turning her quiet rescue farm for misfit animals into a most unlikely wedding venue.

But there are forces, both within this modern new family and in the town itself, that really don’t want to see this handsome couple march down the aisle. It’ll be the biggest, gayest event in the town’s history if they can pull it off, and after a glitter-filled week, nothing will ever be the same. Big Gay Wedding is an uplifting book about the power of family and the unconditional love of a mother for her son.

Barnett’s mother Chrissy runs the Polite Society Ranch. Her husband recently died and she assumed that Barnett would take over the family farm someday so she could retire. When Barnett comes home with his boyfriend and tells her that they are getting married, she knows that her dream of having her son run the farm is over. She also has to come to grips with the fact that Barnett is not going to just outgrow this gay thing like she hoped he would.

Big Gay Wedding has two main plot lines going. One is serious. Chrissy and the rest of the town are having a hard time with a Big Gay Wedding happening on the farm. The other is the planning of the actual wedding. Barnett’s fiancé comes from money and his sister-in-law is planning an extravagant and outlandish wedding. It was just a touch too zany for my taste. I did appreciate how Chrissy’s struggle with Barnett’s sexuality was written. Lane did a good job of portraying her inner turmoil when trying to accept Barnett’s marriage. I liked that there was nuance in her feelings even though I didn’t always agree with them.

Recommended.

I’ve also reviewed Byron Lane’s debut novel A Star is Bored.