In a tradition familiar to readers of women's novels, four women, best friends through four decades, make up what one of the friends dubs the Girlfriends' Club. As a lovable first-grader destined to be a cheerleader, Mary Sue felt sorry for Dixie (who wore glasses and orthopedic shoes), and enlisted her, along with Gretchen (taller than the boys so they called her "The Monster") and Pamela, who had a retarded brother. Popular novelist Wall (If Love Were All; Blood Sisters) begins her latest at a Kansas lakeside cottage where the "girls" frequently meet to celebrate marriages and births, mourn losses by death or divorce, or share anxieties. Mary Sue faces a mastectomy the next morning, on her 45th birthday. She is asleep when a shocking event occurs, and her friends decide to keep it secret from her. In due course, Mary Sue commences chemotherapy while a series of flashbacks hint at how the others, in the light of past decisions, are likely to deal with their agreed-upon silence. Pamela, the only one still married, is constantly fearful of upsetting her demanding husband, presently slated for a judgeship. Gretchen, still handsome and athletic, hated all men when her spouse dumped her, but her loneliness is so distressing that she signs up with a dating service. Dixie's divorce was not bitter, and when she and her son encounter a robust vintner on a trip to Tuscany, she begins a relationship despite the fact that he supports a wife and daughter elsewhere. Each of the four women confronts her own demons, as well as those faced by all women of a certain age, with distinctive courage and the will to persevere. The neat twist that ends this suspenseful, highly readable tale is appropriate, credible and satisfying. Agent, Philippa Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic. (May)
