THE DIVORCÉES

At a divorce ranch in the 1950s, a lonely woman in her early 20s finds a beautiful, mysterious friend.

Lois Saunders’ trip from Lake Forest, Illinois, to Reno, Nevada, is the first step in her liberation from her husband and her father, both of whom infantilize her. At the Golden Yarrow, she will be part of a small group of women waiting out the six weeks of residency required for a divorce. “Like the girls from school, they all have the fresh, clear skin that signifies not just money, but wealth—Lois’s lesser lineage apparent in the bumps prickling her forehead, the thick hair on her forearms.” Though she lies about her background to impress them, the girls close ranks. Her father has told the director not to let her leave the ranch, so she doesn’t go with them on their nightly outings to bars and casinos, and she has no urge to join their daily trail rides. Filled with self-doubt verging on self-loathing, Lois is surprised when a glamorous new guest—who arrives with a huge bruise on her face and goes into seclusion for several days—emerges to choose her, Lois, as her new best friend. Greer Lang wears men’s oxford shirts and exudes such confidence that the director’s daughters wonder if she’s a princess. Her approval unlocks access to the group for Lois, who’s soon tossing back cocktails at the casino and feeling as if she’s becoming a different person. But just as the lizard curled on her windowsill turns out to be an illusion, a shadow, things are not what they seem. Though it’s filled with colorful imagery, dark green dresses and burgundy lips, Beaird’s debut has the hypnotic pacing and dramatic ambience of an old black-and-white film. Her research about the divorce-ranch phenomenon and its period expresses itself in myriad small, compelling details, winking like the stones on the engagement rings the girls toss into the river after their court dates—though Lois’ ring has a different fate.

A transporting psychological novel of friendship and betrayal, with the moody period feel of a Hitchcock film.