The Wednesday Sisters: A Novel | 
| Author: Meg Waite Clayton
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $12.44
You Save: $10.56 (46%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 7729
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0345502825
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345502827
ASIN: 0345502825
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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.
Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful, mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
It was through the writing that we were coming to know who we were. September 19, 2008
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.
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.
Applause for this celebration of sisterhood September 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I came late to sisterhood. A half-generation younger than the women in The Wednesday Sisters, many in my generation scoffed at unliberated women like them. Many in my generation sought to make their way in a man's world, using men's strategies--strategies that felt uncomfortable and often did not serve us well. Yet, at the same time, many of us also became wives and mothers, where we were born again into the realization that the women's way--generosity of spirit and the compassionate, nurturing sisterhood role model--was the right way all along, the right way for us and for our ailing world. The Wednesday Sisters is the book I wish I had written about sisterhood. It transported me back in time to an earlier world that, at once and the same time, felt like home. I long for Meg Wait Clayton's next novel, for the next journey of the soul.
 Inspirational Look at the Power of Friendship September 1, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
What do you get when you combine five women, a shared love of reading and a park picnic table? The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton, of course.
In the late 1960's five very different women meet as their children play in a Palo Alto park. United by their love of books and a shared passion for the Miss America Pageant, the five women - Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett and Ally - become friends. Eventually their love of books leads to the creation of a writing circle. The characters grow as women and as friends through their writing, and that growth is a fascinating process to watch.
We meet these remarkable women at a crucial point in American history. The Vietnam War is dividing the nation and the Summer of Love is at its peak. The first meeting of the Wednesday Sisters takes place the day after Robert F. Kennedy is shot, and the women find themselves drawn to the park; each one looking for comfort and normalcy on that dark day. As their friendships blossom, they watch in awe as Neil Armstrong walks on the moon and re-evaluate their roles as wives and mothers in light of the Women's Liberation Movement. All the while, they continue to write and encourage each other to pursue their dreams.
Meg Waite Clayton did an excellent job in creating vivid, interesting characters and showing how their lives changed as a result of their friendships and the turbulent times in which they lived. This is a fun, easy read, but there's also a lot of meat to the story. It's sure to be a popular choice for book clubs. I wouldn't be surprised to see The Wednesday Sisters on the silver screen at some point. This inspirational story of the power of friendship has a wide appeal.
For Friends Everywhere August 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Wednesday Sisters is the compelling story of friendship between five women who first meet in a 1960s Palo Alto park as their children play. Clayton has developed strong characters in Kath the spoiled doctor's wife, Linda the athlete, Frankie from Chicago, scientist Brett, and secretive Ally. Four are college graduates; one is not. A fierce, enduring bond develops between these five very different women as they discover mutual loves--great literature, expressing themselves in writing, and the Miss America Pageant. Every Wednesday, they bring paper and pen to the picnic table in the park. They discuss their latest reads and then write and share their poems and stories, at first timidly, and then more boldly as their talent, confidence, and level of trust develop. When they begin to type their stories and articles, they make four carbons, so each member can read and critique before the next week's discussion.
As the years pass, the women become more proficient writers and venture into the daunting world of submitting their work for publication. They share leads and keep a joint file of possible agents. They share successes and disappointments. One becomes an editor. One succeeds beyond anyone's dream, landing herself a spot on Johnny Carson's late night show.
Their friendship matures along with their talent. Secrets are revealed and honored. They stand with one another through triumphs and tragedies--births, broken marriages, life-changing illness. Every year, the women gather to watch the Miss America Pageant. It becomes a metaphor of their own development, from youthful dreams and ambitions to a more informed, moderate feminism. They are witnesses to a changing world--the Vietnam conflict, man walking on the moon, and the women's movement. The author is faithful to the details of the changing decades of the 60s and 70s. The women transition from one stage of life to another, from one decade to another, sometimes grudgingly (as they switch from typewriters to computers, for instance) and sometimes with ease. The same determination that keeps them writing sustains them all, no matter what life brings. This is no fairy tale in which life is perfect and everyone is instantly successful.
Clayton develops strong individual characters and tells a powerful story that celebrates friendship, trust, and life. She shows the healing power of telling one's story and the importance of having a group of trusted sisters with whom to share those stories.
by Susan Ideus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
A Look Back at Female Friendships August 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If your memories of the 60's include bell-bottom pants, tie-dye shirts, women's lib and Vietnam protests, you'll want to read The Wednesday Sisters. Or if your mother was of that era, you'll want to read this book to get a glimpse into the times that shaped her.
Clayton has written an engaging story that deftly balances strong characters and a vibrant account of the socio-political context of the times. Five moms, Frankie (the narrator), Linda, Kath, Brett and Ally find themselves neighbors living in Palo Alto, California. Their shared passion for literature evolves into a writer's circle. As the author takes us to their weekly meetings at the local park, we watch their personalities, intimate secrets, and aspirations unfold. With humor and pathos, Clayton portrays the prevailing attitudes of that era towards racism, divorce, motherhood, infertility, infidelity, and breast cancer.
At one point in the book, Brett quotes Henry Adams: One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Then she questions, "What is it we've done so right in our lives that has made us five?" You'll find yourself laughing and crying with the sisters, wishing you were surrounded with an any-day-of-the-week group of your own.
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