Friendship, loyalty and love lie at the heart of this 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.
In the late 1960's, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally find themselves meeting every Wednesday at a park in Palo Alto, California. Defined at first mainly by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love. These "Wednesday Sisters" otherwise 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 the women are bonded by a shared love of literature--Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, duMaurier, Plath, and Dickens--and the Miss American 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 to put a man on the moon, and a women's movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves.
Humorous and moving, this book is a literary feast for booklovers and a celebration of the mysterious, unbreakable bonds among friends.