Review: The Wednesday Sisters

The Wednesday Sisters, by Meg Waite Clayton.
(Ballantine Books, 2008. ISBN: 0345502825)

A group of young mothers meet in a park in Palo Alto in 1968. Over the next few years, they share personal triumphs and tragedies, all while working together to develop their writing skills. Their catalog of woes ranges from infidelity and infertility to cancer.

The characters observe and sometimes participate in the many events that changed the country during those disruptive years. What makes this story different from so many others that focus on that time period is the perspective from which it is told. The young women are wives and mothers, engaged in the traditional roles of supporting their upwardly-mobile husbands and raising their children. Most novels set in the late 1960’s feature characters that are more directly and actively engaged in the political and social upheaval of the time.

A light read with a rather predictable story line, The Wednesday Sisters is nonetheless notable for its reflections on the many changes in the roles of women in society over the last few decades. Younger readers may be surprised to learn about the demonstrations outside the Miss America Pageant and to read about women athletes who were barred from competing in the Boston Marathon.

Women's book discussion books may want to consider this title.