The Wednesday Sisters - Meg Waite Clayton

Summary: Five women, one passion, and the unbreakable bond of friendship

When five young mothers–Frankie, Linda, Kath, Ally, and Brett–first meet in a neighborhood park in the late 1960s, their conversations center on marriage, raising children, and a shared love of books. Then one evening, as they gather to watch the Miss America Pageant, Linda admits that she aspires to write a novel herself, and the Wednesday Sisters Writing Society is born. The five women slowly, and often reluctantly, start filling journals, sliding pages into typewriters, and sharing their work. In the process, they explore the changing world around them: the Vietnam War, the race to the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they believe about themselves. At the same time, the friends carry one another through more personal changes–ones brought about by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success. With one another’s support and encouragement, the Wednesday Sisters begin to embrace who they are and what they hope to become, welcoming readers to experience, along with them, the power of dreaming big.
Summary and Cover Photo from barnesandnoble.com

My Review: A group of housewives so happen to meet at a park and form a life long bond that begins with a book club and develops into a writers circle. This is the basic plot of "The Wednesday Sisters". Intertwined within this tale are the individual struggles each woman has with motherhood, marriage and the woman's movement taking place during the sixties.

If the above summary sounds familiar to you then you too have read "Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons" by Lorna Landvik. If this is the case do not bother opening this novel as the uncanny similarities between these two books is undeniably irritating. Whereas Landovik's characters were realistic and engaging, I found the Wednesday sisters to be stereotypical and a bit one dimensional.

I also found the writer's circle to be rather far-fetched. What are the chances that five women from one neighborhood aspire to be writers? Even more so, what are the chances that all of these women make it in one way or another in the industry? If that's doesn't have you shaking your head let me also mention that one of these women wears gloves throughout the entire book and the others do not catch a glimpse under these gloves for over a decade. How exactly do you parent small children and never have to remove your gloves through diaper changes, feedings and boo-boo mending?

I do understand why this book is enticing to book clubs. The array of female characters and their various choices offer lots of discussion material. Many readers have even found this read enjoyable. It just wasn't there for me and so I'm going to recommend skipping this one and reading the original.

My Rating: 2 Stars

To Sum it Up: A far-fetched disappointing tale about friendships and the bonds written words can create.