Note to self: avoid books that include a reading group guide. Who writes these guides anyway? They are so simplistic and patronizing. The real problem is not the guide, naturally, but the likely pairing of said guide with fairly insipid novels, The Wednesday Sisters
This book talks about a friendship between five young mothers and would-be writers that takes place in the late sixties near Stanford University where several of their husbands work. They don’t work, as the phrase go, except for raising their children, and raising them pretty much on their own since the husbands have demanding jobs. There’s plenty of interesting local history that rings true, including the beginning of Intel, the semiconductor company but the rest is tedious. Breast cancer, multiple miscarriages, a messy affair and divorce before divorce became common, all the expected tear jerkers are there, along with tedious friendship secrets and withheld information. If these women are so close to each other why don’t they admit to simple things, such as breast cancer? And the whole book is steeped into a severely heavy-handed treatment of how unliberated these smart, educated women are. It doesn’t ring very true for the period, and it’s so unsubtle!
