THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS

Author: Meg Waite Clayton ISBN: 9780345502827 6/2008 FICTION Publisher: BALLANTINE

For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature—Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens—and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year. As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Meg Waite Clayton's THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS reads like a visit with an old, treasured friend. Smooth and flowing, this story weaves together the lives of five friends and spans three and a half decades. Filled with small details which, taken on their own seem inconsequential but when seen as part of the bigger picture each prove to be very important indeed, this novel showcases the sisterhood of friendships, and its importance.

Frankie, or "Mary Frances" as she thinks she'll be called in her new life, finds herself in California trying to figure out the best way to fit in with the other young housewives. Without friends and family to anchor her, to validate who she is and her position in the world, for the first time in her life the decision to be who she believes herself capable of being rather than who she actually is, is open to her. At the park she meets other women, forms friendships and, in the end, stays Frankie to one and all. Years pass, the women grow closer and their understanding, acceptance and support of and for each other grows as well. Infidelity, illness and death come to their sisterhood, but together their collective shoulders carry every burden. Fortunately, life hands them dreams, joys and promise for the future as well as hardships, and together the ladies share those adventures as well.

This story is less about writing or everyday trials and tribulations than it would seem. It shows that family doesn't always have to come with a genetic history and that even well-defined roles have some wiggle room.

THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS embraces the magic that brings women together in a special bond that can only be called sisterhood. It is an absolute treasure, one that I'll be passing on to the "sister" of my heart!

Kay James