Magnolia Wednesdays

Magnolia Wednesdays by Wendy Wax is an enjoyable novel set in suburban Atlanta which tells the story of Vivien, a hard-driving journalist who left the South to pursue her career in the concrete jungle of New York City. She looks with derision on the land of suburbia and feels superior to the women tending to homes and children. That is, until she finds herself 41, pregnant and unemployed. In desperation, she heads back down south to live with her widowed sister, Melanie, and her two teen children. Things get interesting when Vivien takes a job reporting on life in suburbia under the pen name of "Scarlett Leigh" and begins investigating the death of her brother in law - all unbeknownst to her sister and the friends she has made in the show more 'burbs.

Wendy Wax has created quite an ensemble cast of characters in this book - the main characters are Vivien and her sister, Melanie but there is also their critical mother, Caroline and the members of a belly-dancing class hosted at the dance studio owned by Melanie. Each of the "supporting" cast members have their own stories which add a depth and interest to the book. Like Vivien, they each undergo an evolution as the novel progresses and it is interesting to watch how they change.

Vivien, however, undergoes the most change - both physically and emotionally. As her pregnancy progresses, she is surprised by the change in her shape and size but she also begins to notice a shift in her opinion of her suburban neighbors that she so harshly criticizes in her weekly newspaper column. Slowly, she integrates into the community she has found in the 'burbs and she recognizes that there is life beyond the big bad city.

This book is a funny, entertaining read with just enough depth to make it a truly worthwhile read. I wholeheartedly recommend it! show less

Vivi is an investigative reporter at a major news network. She's worked hard to eradicate her southern origins, doing everything she can short of completely cutting off her family, in order to be the hard hitting New Yorker that her job requires. When she is shot in the rear during a sting gone wrong and the footage ends up on YouTube she is sure that her life has hit an all-time low. Then she discovers that her boss has been out trolling for another investigative reporter, one younger and blonder than she is. Instead of staying to train her replacement, Vivi flies off the handle and quits her job. Things get more complicated when it turns out that it is her hormones that made her so unreasonable; she's pregnant, unmarried, now jobless, show more and her famous reporter boyfriend is on location in a war zone.

Unable to find another job in broadcast journalism, Vivi swallows her pride and takes something she feels well beneath her: writing a column incognito about life in suburbia. And since she has no direct experience of life in the suburbs, she tucks her tail and heads home to Atlanta to move in with her widowed sister, niece, and nephew, looking at herself as a stranger in the strange land of their lives, despite her previous lack of interest in her very proper, very southern family. Vivi is so busy trying to hide from the realities of her life she doesn't stop to see what her sister Melanie's life is really like, the daily troubles of life with two fatherless teenagers, the financial worries that are part and parcel of owning a business, especially one like a ballroom dance business, and the loneliness of a single parent who is stretched so thin that she barely has time to breathe much less show an interest in the opposite sex.

Vivi is oblivious to anything not directly impacting her own life, writing her dispatches from the suburbs from a deeply flawed perspective which outrages the suburbanites around her, and hiding her real reason for being home from her sister. And it is only when she starts to feel discomfort in sending up Melanie's life so cavalierly, when she starts to confront her own deeply held prejudices, when she starts to worry about the morality of withholding his impending parenthood from her concerned and caring boyfriend, and when she starts to see the complexities of life all around her that she starts to grow as a character.

Wax has created a wonderfully selfish character who finally grows up, understanding that not only is she not the center of the universe, but that each universe out there is valuable and doesn't deserve mockery. Vivi learns to re-evaluate success and to see that there are many ways to achieve. Like her namesake in Gone With the Wind, Melanie is a sweet, considerate woman who allows Vivi to take advantage of her while hoping that her kindness will eventually help her sister to become a better person. The pace of the plot is perfect with revelations coming at nicely measured intervals so that the reader is never bored. Vivi's eventual exposure was a tad unbelievable, quick, and surprisingly thorough given the scope of all her poking about. But that is a minor complaint about a book that was overall quite enjoyable. Of course, now I'm going to have to go and take the activity magnets off the back of my car so we're not so readily classifiable as Vivi says suburban moms are! show less

Vivien Armstrong Gray is reaching that certain decade in broadcast journalism that can be a little difficult to breach. As one of her investigative pieces winds up more popular on You Tube and her body is becoming a hormonal mess, Vivi heads home to Georgia. This suburban life of her sister Melanie is very foreign to Vivi, but the sisters adult relationship eventually begins to flourish. Many of the nuances of any Southern novel are here, but Wax does a gentle job with her characters and they are not typecast. It's always nice to read chick-lit of women of a more realistic age and place in life.

The plot rambled around Vivien's decades long selfish behavior and way over long held secrets.

It would have been better for the lives of her sister and her family if Vivien had simply remained in NYC
and enjoyed her baby with Stone.

It was hard to believe that Shelby, the daughter who never kept any opinions to herself, would have not
told her mother that her beloved father was gay...and not to early figure out who "C" could possibly be made little sense.

Also, unwelcome overemphasis on racist Gone with The Wind.

I've really enjoyed other books I've read by her, but didn't like this one. The protagonist was truly insufferable. I thought about quitting but wanted to find out what happened with the other, less annoying characters, so I skimmed a lot of the book. A big disappointment.

One of those books that goes along nicely enough with likeable characters and enough plot to suffice, then suddenly the finish line is in sight and everything magically resolves.

Read it for a book club.