A former Chicagoan, her name is Meg Waite Clayton and her last book, The Wednesday Sisters was a word of mouth sensation and became a national bestseller. This month, her third book The Four Ms. Bradwells will be published by Ballantine Books Hardcover. Noitice the Ms. in the title when you ask for this by name.
The novel is about four women, friends through a lifetime of fighting for equal rights through legal and journalist professions. If you like to read about the continual struggle for equality, you will want to read this book.The plot is not original but the characters are what make this novel a must read.
This story is about friendship, but it is also more.The Four Ms. Bradwells is the story of four women who stay friends through long lives; who learn about themselves through the friendships they have with each other.The author's characters are more.
These women become friends you want to know. Maybe this is because these women tell their story through the filter of generations; facing heartache and aging together, while looking back at their mothers, and wondering if all of everything was the same for them.
This is not just a story about a group of women, but also a story about generations, about relationships, about the fluid motion of relationships over lifetimes. It is about a coming of age in middle age, and about facing the questions we all must eventually face. Who am I? Am I a success? Does it matter?
Did my mother ever have second thoughts about anything? Did she doubt herself? Was she proud of me? it is the honesty which each character brings to these questions that makes the reader think about them too.
Whatever our age, we have difficulty imagining ourselves as older. Especially when we are young, we are so busy becoming that we don't stop to think that there will come a time when we've reached goals, realized what we thought we'd dreamed; then what?
This story is set during the time when the characters begin to see themselves for who they are, in relationship to the women around them present and past.The question of whether or not they measure up is always in mind.
We always bring who we are to what we read. Maybe it was because I read this book at a time of my own Mother’s passing, but The Four Ms. Bradwells is one I will always remember.
Maybe it is because of how the characters in this story struggled to be themselves, to see themselves, to accept themselves and those they loved, and how it wasn’t easy; how they learn to face the painful realization that the questions always remain.
Mother's Day is coming up. This would be a good book to share with your Mom. And your best friend.This is a good book to read when you still have plans and dreams, and when you're coming to the realization of them - or not.
And this is what sets this story apart; the very human characters, the very real description of what they are going through. I could describe this as a story about equal rights, about friendship, about relationships, about so much. I will let you bring to it what you will and remember what you need to.
For more information: www.megwaiteclayton.com
Art courtesy of Helene Smith: http://www.etsy.com/people/helenesmith
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