THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS

A story of female friendship in Palo Alto evokes the ’60s, including the stirrings of second-wave feminism.

Beauty-pageant protests, inequality for female athletes, daughters denied educational opportunities and many other not-so-subtle reminders of how far we’ve come pepper Clayton’s predictable second novel (The Language of Light, 2003), which brings together Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett and Ally in a Californian park in 1967. Their friendship inspires a writing group, The Wednesday Sisters Writing Society, and also a support network as crises come and go: There are Ally’s miscarriages; Linda’s health scare; Kath’s marriage problems. The women share confessions, rifts and revelations which edge them toward greater achievement, while behind them a stream of iconic ’60s moments—the Olympic Black Power salute; the moon landing—and books (Love Story, The French Lieutenant’s Woman) add period flavor. Characterized mainly by their problems, the friends inevitably undergo life changes by the end of the story: Ally finally gives birth; Linda runs a mini-marathon but suffers a medical setback; two-timed Kath starts a career; Brett writes an impressive novel; and narrator Frankie, who also publishes a novel, finally gets a college education.

Formulaic.