Rowan Beaird

Lois Sanders is unhappy in her marriage and after her husband hides her diaphragm, she knows she needs a divorce. She heads to Reno, NV to obtain a no-fault divorce by staying at one of the famous ranches for 6 weeks. While there, another woman, Greer, joins the group of women wanting divorces. Green enchants Lois, and Lois falls under her spell. Greer comes up with a scheme for them to execute. After weeks, Lois starts to recognize that things are not as they seem - not with her husband, her father, or her friendship with Greer.
I wanted to like this book, but I didn't - I was bored throughout.… (more)

The Divorcees takes an almost forgotten part of history (Nevada’s more liberal divorce laws of the mid-twentieth century and the industry that sprang up around it) and weaves it into a story about independence, trust and the restrictions on women at the time. It’s a relatively slow moving story but still interesting for the history it digs into.

The main character is Lois, who wants a divorce from her husband because she doesn’t want a child, and she doesn’t want to live her life with her husband. She escaped her father’s house straight into marriage and now she’s at a loss. Having been an outsider due to her father’s job and her family’s ethnicity, Lois finds that marriage changes none of that. She wants her own freedom, and the only way she can do that is through divorce. But in the 1950s, divorce is not as accepted so her father organises for her to travel to Reno to reside for six weeks at a ‘divorce ranch’. There she will meet the laws for divorce in Nevada (a resident for six weeks) and the owner of the ranch can keep an eye on her as per her father’s instruction. At first, Lois stays in every night at her father’s request and doesn’t go out to the bars and casinos with the other women living at the ranch. They are all more wealthy and of a higher class and shun Lois somewhat. But when the exotic Greer arrives, all the women are enthralled by her mystery. Greer and Lois become friends and things get wilder – dares in bars and casinos until they plan the ultimate escape…

Lois is an awkward character, not really knowing what she wants for a lot of the novel and then not knowing how to go about it. She cares a lot about what others think and overanalyses the looks and comments from the other women. Greer helps her to grow into herself and become more decisive, but she’s never going to be a rapid decision maker although the reader sees glimpses of her growth at the end of the novel. For the most part, the other women getting divorces are caricatures and not explored overly in depth. Most of them are planning divorce in order to get married almost straightaway, or finding that the road post-Reno isn’t going to be so easy. There is drama in the form of drunken (almost) ex-husbands showing up at the ranch, as well as the women getting drunk and calling their married beloveds. For a reasonable chunk of the novel, the women go out and get drunk, smoke and gamble. Some engage with other men, but when Greer comes on the scene the stakes get higher. All want to impress her and she sets up various dares of which Lois excels at, wanting to impress her.

The pacing is deliberately slow to evoke the feeling of waiting – for divorce, for normal life to resume and for Lois to realise what’s going on with Greer. When her realisation comes, it’s a tough blow for Lois but it doesn’t seem to affect her all that much. (She’s a curious character, left unfulfilled and searching for something that she can’t name). The slow pace could be seen as frustrating for some, as there isn’t a great deal happening in this novel in the lead up to Greer arriving. It’s a novel you need to be in the mood for. I found it interesting and was willing to go with the flow as the characters revealed parts of themselves.

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