Michelle's Musings

01 April 2024

Review: The Divorcées

The Divorcées by Rowan Beaird
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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One of my favorite movies of all time is The Women starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosilind. Russell, Marjorie Main and other big time actresses. The film came out in 1939, the year of the greatest films ever, and is all about a group of women (except Joan) that travel via train from their homes to a Divorcee farm in Nevada. The law was if you were a resident of Nevada for 6 weeks, you could obtain your divorce and move on. These women would live on the farm for 6 weeks, get the divorce and go back to their lives. During the 6 weeks, friendships are born, women will explode at each other and they have to work a little on the farm for their keep.

There was a similar movie in 1961 starting Marilyn Monroe. We don’t see her living on a ranch, but we see her living in Reno and spending her days and nights flirting with cowboys, falling for other men and chasing wild horses. (FUN FACT, it was the last film of both Gable and Monroe-not that great of a film but she looks absolutely stunning throughout the whole thing).

This book follows a similar path, a group of women are living at the Golden Yarrow ranch to fulfill their residency requirement and form new relationships and discover new things about each other, and themselves. Lois is our protagonist and she lives a little bit of a sheltered life. She isn’t really sure what she will do after this divorce or even what she wants to do. Enter a new soon to be ex wife, Greer. Greer will cause Lois to rethink life, love, freedom and limits.

Here is my review from NetGalley….

The Women is one of my favorite movies of all time. The Misfits isn't one of my favorite but it is Marilyn so I watch it. This book makes me think of both of those movies, with more character development than The Misfits and less pretension than The Women. Set in the 1950s, we meet, Lois, the main character seeking refuge in Reno for six weeks so that she could obtain her divorce. She's living at a ranch with many other women waiting the time for their divorce to come through. She meets some women that become temporary friends and one day a new woman arrives...Greer. Greer shows Lois a life she never dreamed of, a way she could live alone after the divorce is complete and how to be a strong woman. Then Greer tries to destroy Lois. Lois will have to become strong and independent all by herself.

I very much enjoyed this one!