The title really says it all. Are you close to the head table? Are your table mates your equals? How do you fit in and why. This book takes place over a long weekend. There’s a marriage (the oldest daughter) and that couple seems the sanest of them all. The younger sister has been relegated to “friend” by her boyfriend. The father, Winn Van Meter, flirts heavily with a bridesmaid and is pining to get into the summer place country club, thinking he is being blackballed by an old college friend who was shut out of Winn’s college club. The wife sort of rolls with the punches. The bridesmaids are 1) interesting 2) boring 3) unsavory. The relatives are fun, and seem to have a good understanding of their siblings.
I enjoyed most of the the book, but toward the end Mr. Van Meter turned into a sort of John Cleese of Faulty Towers and the book lost the sense of satire that I think the author was aiming for and slid into slapstick.