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It should have been very appealing: all the ingredients are there. There’s a brief prologue that hints at the rest of the story. Then quite a dramatic first chapter, where it’s obvious what’s going to transpire, but the tension is nicely done. We meet Eve in that first chapter, a reasonably happy and comfortably off housewife with two teenage children. She’s feeling as if something isn’t quite right in her marriage, but her husband Tom is about to go on a business trip. So she hopes to sort everything out when he returns.
It’s no spoiler to say that Tom doesn’t return: this is what we know, from the start, is going to happen. And much of the novel is about Eve, how she grieves, what regrets she has, and how she eventually starts to find new meaning in her life.
The book is set in the United States, mostly in a small town, at the end of the 20th century. The other members of the book club are Doris, Gabriella, Midge and Annie. They’re distinct enough that I didn’t have any trouble remembering who was whom. They’re all in their forties or early fifties.
Having said that, Gabriella is rather two-dimensional and I never really got to know her. She’s a working mother with four young children, and her husband has just lost his job. So she increases her hours and tries to keep going with her super-mom and perfect-house mode. Inevitably she burns out.
Doris has been Eve’s friend for years; her husband is rather controlling, and she’s feeling as if he ignores her except when he wants her to host parties or dinners for his colleagues. He cares more about money than anything else, and clearly has other women on the side although Doris doesn’t want to risk losing her security by confronting him. She knows she’s letting herself go health-wise, but she can’t be bothered with exercise or healthy eating.
Annie is a dynamic lawyer, happily married to John, although they married when she was forty and he was just a few years younger. She suddenly decides that perhaps she would like a baby, even though she’s over forty. John is delighted… until he realises just how mechanical their love-life will become. And when nothing happens, Annie has tests which reveal something very worrying.
Midge is also rather shadowy; she’s a free spirited artist who lives alone, and is always willing to help out with babysitting or a listening ear. She’s contented with her life… until her mother announces that she’s come to stay. And her mother (a caricature whom I never really believed in) is always on at her to find a new man.
So there’s lots of potential for interesting dynamics and interweaving stories as these five women meet monthly in each other’s homes to discuss books. At the start of each chapter, there’s a quotation from a classic - and it appears that they only read classics - but there’s never very much about the actual book club meetings. It’s more a device to show how they all met.
But somehow, it doesn’t really work. There are lots of intriguing subplots, but some of them just disappear without resolution. And there are tensions - such as Eve’s children being very unhappy about the thought of her dating someone else - which also just go away without any motivation or reason. Alice and Doris don’t much like each other at the start of the book, but it’s not clear why - nor is it really clear why they become friendlier later on.
And some of the writing just tells us what people are thinking rather than showing what’s going on. When five different people are viewpoint characters, it’s hard to get inside any of their minds or hearts - so I didn’t find myself in any way emotionally moved.
It’s not a bad book; it made a pleasant enough light read, without too much ‘adult’ content. But it’s not one I would recommend, nor am I likely to read it again. But don't necessarily take my word for it: the author is a bestselling writer in the US, so evidently there are plenty of people who like her books immensely.
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