The collapse of a marriage comes as a seismic shock to a group of six high school friends now on the verge of middle age in this splendid, often hilarious first novel by television writer and producer Bloodworth Thomason (Designing Women
, etc.). Five of the friends still live in unpretentious Paris, Ark.: Wood MacKelmore, the third-generation local doctor ("Wood was to the group what Frank Sinatra was to the Rat Pack"); Milan, Wood's gorgeous wife of 20 years who grew up dirt poor; Wood's close friend Earl Brundidge Jr., who runs the town liquor store and is a single father of two little girls; Mavis Pinkerton, Milan's best friend, an accomplished cook who owns a bakery; and Carl Jeter, a quadriplegic who was injured in a football game at 17 and is now a poet. The sixth member of the group is flamboyant rebel Duff, Wood's first love and Milan's nemesis. Duff moved away after high school, but when Milan's daughter, Elizabeth, comes home from college announcing plans to marry a classmate, Luke Childs, it isn't long before everyone realizes that Luke is Duff's son. Thrown together by their children's engagement, Wood and Duff rekindle their long-ago affair, jeopardizing not only Wood's marriage but also the relationships among their friends. A thicket of sideplots—including the unwelcome arrival of a chain discount megastore, Mavis's quest to find a sperm donor and Brundidge's long-distance romance with a New Yorker—give the novel a rich, layered feel. Poignant, welcoming and warmly funny, this is an irresistible page-turner. 10-city author tour.
(Sept. 7)
Forecast:
Bloodworth Thomason is famously an FOB (Friend of Bill); hopefully, her association with the Clintons won't scare Republican readers away from this nonpartisan small-town saga.
