We love a novel that touches on history while making it hum with themes that remain relevant today. The Divorcées by Rowan Beaird is one such novel. Set at a so-called divorce ranch in 1950s’ Reno, we meet a group of women who are biding their time in style while waiting for their divorces to become final. Two of the women — Lois and Greer — strike up an unlikely friendship, leaving us wondering about all of the motives that drive us through life. As you dig into the novel with your book club, consider these questions to corral your conversation. Warning: Spoilers abound! Only read the questions once you've finished the novel. And when you’re through, check out the full book club guide on Page & Pairing.
The Divorcées
by Rowan Beaird
1. When the other women at the Golden Yarrow ask about Lois’s divorce, she explains, “I just felt that — if I stayed with him — I’d, not explode exactly, that sounds too violent or exciting even, but collapse in on myself. That I’d disappear.” What do you think she means? How do you understand her marriage to Lawrence? Why was it so damaging to Lois?
2. Why do you think Rita and Lois have such a testy relationship? Why does Lois struggle to make friends in Lake Forest and at the Golden Yarrow, until meeting Greer? How do things change for her in Los Angeles?
3. What role does setting play in this novel? How is Reno depicted? Did any aspects of that portrait surprise you? How do Reno and its surroundings shape the characters’ experience at the Golden Yarrow?
4. Lois is haunted by her mother’s unhappiness as a wife and mother and doesn’t want to repeat her mistakes. Discuss their relationship, as you understand it, and the effect it continues to have on Lois.
5. Greer says of Rita, “She pretends she cares about us, but she’s practically another husband, trying to control our every thought and move.” Do you agree? Both Rita and Greer are magnetic figures at the Golden Yarrow, with strong ideas about how the other women should act. Compare and contrast their worldviews and the advice they give. Overall, do you think they have a positive or negative impact at the ranch?
6. In her first conversation with Greer, Lois tells her about almost drowning in Lake Michigan as a girl. At the Golden Yarrow, she swims in the pool nearly every day, and the novel ends with her finally visiting the ocean in California. Why do you think swimming is so meaningful for Lois? What does it represent for her?
7. The women at the Golden Yarrow are, according to Mr. Tarleton, “always a class above the rest,” yet there are still subtle class distinctions between, say, Dorothy and Vera, or Lois and Mary Elizabeth. What role does class play in this novel, especially in how it shapes the relationships between the women? How does Greer manage to circumvent the system?
8. Did you believe Lois’s claim that she knew the gun she aimed at Mary Elizabeth’s husband wasn’t loaded? Why do the other women treat her so differently after that moment? What do you think Lois is capable of?
9. Greer convinces Lois to follow through on their planned heist by appealing to their shared nature: “I need this, Lois. I have nowhere to go back to, really, just like you. We want the same thing. I sensed it that first day I saw you in the pool, how easily you could hold your breath and plunge to the bottom. It was almost like you didn’t care if you ever came to the surface.” Do you agree that Greer and Lois “want the same thing”? What is that thing, if so? Do you think Greer ever meant to go ahead with the heist, or was she always leading Lois on? Explain.
10. In the final pages of the novel, Lois reflects: Without Greer, she wouldn’t know what it felt like to wander a flea market alone, tasked only with pleasing herself; to have one of the girls at the counter offer her their last cigarette; to wake in the morning and lie in bed for an hour, listening to the finches flutter outside her window; to float in the belly of the ocean. She wouldn’t have these quiet moments, small and bright as pearls, when she realizes that her life is finally her own. Do you think Lois is better off for having met Greer, despite everything? How much of Lois’s transformation is due to Greer, and how much is Lois’s own agency?