The Divorcées

DEBUT Beaird’s first novel is a twisty tale about learning to take responsibility for one’s own life. In the 1950s, Lois escapes a short and loveless marriage in Chicago by staying on a “divorce ranch” for six weeks to establish residency in Reno, NV, a city where unhappiness is legal grounds for divorce. (In most states at the time, divorce was only justified by abandonment or adultery.) Lois had sleepwalked into marriage after an unloving childhood and her mother’s death, and at Nevada’s Golden Yarrow Ranch, Lois remains passive and socially awkward, until the arrival of glamorous and overbearing Greer. The women staying at the ranch travel nightly to bars and casinos in Reno, and Greer pushes them toward increasingly drunken and wild behavior. Lois is thrilled at Greer’s attention and proud to help her fight off a stalking husband; then she embraces Greer’s scheme to steal money from a casino and is barely able to save herself from Greer’s resulting betrayal. In a satisfying denouement, Lois overcomes her passivity and sets out on her own, earning a steady if unglamourous income and working toward a self-actualized future as a makeup artist.