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Sunday, June 8, 2008
title: The Wednesday Sisters
author: Meg Waite Clayton
pages: 284
genre: fiction
first line: 'The Wednesday sisters look like the kind of women who might meet at those fancy coffee shops on University-we do look that way-but we're not one bit fancy, and we're not sisters either. '
rated: 4 out of 5
Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton’s beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.
When I got a ARC of The Wednesday Sisters from library thing, I was very excited.
Set in the late 1960's, four friends, Kat, Linda, Ally, Brett & Frankie meet at the local park, where they bring their children to play, and end up becoming friends. They all love to read and admit to each other they also enjoy writing. They soon form a writing club and begin to meet each Wednesday.'That was the first Wednesday, September 6, 1967.
When I tell people that-that I first came to the Bay Area at the end of that summer, that's when the Wednesday Sisters first met-they inevitably get this look in their eyes that says bell-bottoms and flower power, war protests and race riots, LSD.
Even to me, it seems a little improbable in retropsect that I never saw a joint back then, never flashed anyone a peace sign. But I had a three-year-old daughter and a baby son already. I had a husband who'd passed the draft age, who would have a PhD and a full-time job within months. I'd already settled into the life I'd been raised to settle into: dependable daughter, good wife, attentive mother. All the Wednesday Sisters had. We spent the Summer of Love changing diapers, going to the grocery store, baking tuna casseroles and knitting sweater vests and watching Walter Cronkite from the safety of our family rooms.'
The novel is mostly narrated by Frankie, she has moved to Palo Alto, California from Chicago and is worried about making friends and fitting in.
Linda is a runner and is strong willed, and bossy at times, it was her idea to start the writing group. Brett wears white gloves always and the other sisters wonder what she is hiding underneath them. She loves to quote authors. Ally is the shy quiet one, she has a sad secret to tell, I won't go into it now, you need to read the book to find out. But then again, all these sisters have thier secrets. I did like Ally & her husband alot. Kath is a wealthy Southern lady, who married into money, like she was supposed to. Out of all the sisters who is my favorite? I think I liked Ally the most. But I also like Kath alot, she does some unexpected things in this story.
You get to see each of these women's lives and the struggles they go through. They each agree to write and try to be published.
This is a novel about friendship and finding true friends when you least expect it. It is also a story about hope and dreams.
"We could start a writing group," Linda said. "All of us."
There was a long pause, the only sound a Coke jingle on the TV, before Ally said she couldn't write and Kath said, "How about a book club?"
"But we already talk about books!" Linda said. "Wouldn't you like to try writing one?"
"Just for fun, maybe?" I said. "Nothing serious?"
Kath asked whether we'd ever find time to write, and Brett, too, seemed hesitant, but Linda rolled ahead in typical Linda fashion. "You could write a Pride and Prejudice set in American South, Kath-"
"Mr. Darcy Goes to the Derby!" I said.
"Just for fun, like Frankie said," Linda said. "It's not as if we're thinking were going to be the next Slyvia Plath."
I enjoyed this book, I was easily hooked and it was hard to put down. It does have a great story line and the characters are likeable. I laughed out loud in parts of it and got teary eyed in other parts too. This is the type of book, that if done right, would be a great film. I am passing this book on to my own sister and can't wait for her to read it so we can discuss it too.
'And we all agreed: it was the writing that mattered. It was through the writing that we were coming to know who we were.'
visit the author's website: http://www.megwaiteclayton.com/
Meg Clayton has linked my review from her website!
click here
this book has been part of the following reading challenges:
TBR
Triple 8
100 +
