The Red Hat Club [Hardcover]

Haywood Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2003

Meet Georgia, SuSu, Teeny, Diane, and Linda--five women who've been best friends through thirty years since high school. Sit in when they don their red hats and purple outfits to join Atlanta's Ladies Who Lunch for a delicious monthly serving of racy jokes, iced tea and chicken salad, baskets of sweet rolls, the latest Buckhead gossip, and most of all--lively support and caring through the ups and downs of their lives. When Diane discovers her banker husband has a condo (with mistress) that he bought with their retirement funds, the Red Hats swing into action and hang him with his own rope in a story that serves up laughter, friendship, revenge, high school memories, long-lost loves, a suburban dominatrix, and plenty of white wine and junk food. From the 1960s to the present, The Red Hat Club is a funny, unforgettable novel that shows the power women can find when they accept and support each other.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Smith's hardcover debut, Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch, was a charmer, but her newest offering falls flat. Five middle-aged women in Atlanta, former sorority sisters and now the last bastion of "civilized" (read: white and Southern) society, meet monthly to dish up gossip and drink iced tea in their red hats and purple outfits, in honor of Jenny Joseph's poem "Warning" ("When I am an old woman I shall wear purple/ With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me"). Strictly abiding by a list of 12 time-honored rules labeled the "Sacred Traditions" ("Tradition 5: Mind your own business; Tradition 10: With the exception of alcoholic beverages, all calories shall be in chewable form"), they serve as each others' support network. When Diane's husband is discovered to be cheating on her in a condo she paid for the five decide to turn the tables on him. The plot clips along, but the characters are dislikable enough to sabotage the momentum. The Red Hatters tragic wronged wife Diane; flawlessly attired corporate bride Teeny; promiscuous divorcee SuSu; graying, happily married Linda; and narrator Georgia, a restless wife dreaming of her first love, are little more than cardboard cutouts. Their obsession with proper behavior grates on the nerves, and Georgia is overwhelmingly prissy: "the possibility annoyed the poo out of me." The flashbacks to the women's sorority days are more successful one chapter in which two of the girls, terrified of making a friend miss curfew, drive her stuck-in-reverse car five miles home backwards is a chuckler but nothing makes this disappointing effort stand out from the ranks of Rebecca Wells wannabes.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

They've been friends since the only hat they'd be caught dead in was their official Mousketeer ears, but now that they're women of a certain age, red hats and purple dresses represent their wardrobe of choice. Risking ridicule from the fashion police, lifelong pals Georgia, Diane, Linda, SuSu, and Teeny don their geriatric getup at ritual lunches of sweet tea and salads, tacky jokes and true confessions. There's nothing these feisty friends don't know about each other, nothing they wouldn't do for each other, so when Diane suspects her husband of having an affair, who else can she call on to help catch him red-handed? As they help Diane plot her revenge, each friend revisits and reveals the depth of her loyalty. Although not endorsed by the official "Red Hat Society," Smith's celebration of comradeship is a loving tribute to those lifelong relationships that may defy logic but are destined to outlive many other associations. A joyous, joyful ode to the older woman. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (September 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312316933
• ISBN-13: 978-0312316938
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,239,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times best-selling author Haywood Smith did not start writing till she was forty. Seven years of learning, writing, and rewriting later, St. Martins Press published the first of six critically acclaimed, best-selling historical novels about "strong women, hunky heroes, accurate history, and upbeat endings."

After a devastating divorce left her financially destitute, she switched to writing humorous Southern women's fiction about Baby Boomer women who help each other through their various trials with creativity, loyalty, and lots of fun, earning Haywood a place on the New York Times best seller list. ("I sent my ex a thank-you note.")

Haywood adored her mother-in-law, who lived across the street for twenty-five years, then moved in at Haywood's invitation after the divorce. In her mother-in-law's memory, Haywood wrote a fun, helpful handbook titled THE TWELVE SACRED TRADITIONS OF MAGNIFICENT MOTHERS-IN-LAW.

Haywood loves to do stand-up comedy about her life (It's been wild.) and waives her speaker's fee for women's charity fundraisers, Red Hat regional meetings, and Friends of the Library groups. Contact her at [e-mail] with EVENT in the subject line for particulars.

She also loves to hear from her fans at [e-mail] and personally answers all her e-mails.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Hoot!, October 31, 2003

By 

April S. Fields (Buford, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Red Hat Club (Hardcover)

I've lived in the Atlanta area for sixteen years and I thought I might be bored by the familiar in Red Hat Club. References to locations and landmarks, like Piedmont Ave, The Varsity and AJC. I questioned the use of the Jenny Jones Red Hat reference as been there done that. I sort of even resisted, trying to be aloof and objective, certainly not wanting to be swayed by all the things I had in common with the protag, Georgia; same age, similar life questions and experiences. I wanted to be cool and sophisticated and not invest anything in the other characters, Teeny, Linda, Diane and SuSu either because I prefer to believe that modern Southern women are not stereotypical airheads.

My ploy didn't work. I was putty in Haywood's hands by the end of chapter two. From then on, I just relaxed and enjoyed it and before it was over I found I was not only invested in the women of the Red Hat Club, I felt as though I could have fit right into their tight circle and would if they'd invite me.

I read for many reasons, pleasure, stimulation, information. But sometimes it's good to curl up on a rainy (North Georgia) Sunday and read an easy, lighthearted tale that tugs at your own memories of misspent youth and lost dreams. Sometimes that's all I need. But if I can turn the last page feeling I know the characters and wishing to read more about them, the author has done her job and what more can you ask of a work of fiction?

I was and she did.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The power of women's friendship!!!, September 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Red Hat Club (Hardcover)

THE RED HAT CLUB is an amazing book that takes you through the lives of five women (who met in high school) and how they stick together through marriage troubles, kids, abusive husbands, cheating men, going-nowhere jobs, and middle age. They belong to a group called THE RED HAT CLUB where they where purple suits and red hats and meet for lunch once a month (this club is a real thing across America). I love the way the women band together to bring justice to a cheating husband, and how another has to face the one man she still fantasizes about (not her husband!) after all these years. It's just such a treat to read a book about the bonds of female friendship. Get this book and get one for your best friend, too!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ladies in red and purple, February 11, 2005

By 

Charlene Massey-Barber "Pixie Lady" (Southern Tier, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Red Hat Club (Mass Market Paperback)

An inspiring story about 5 women who have been friends forever. The story takes place in Atlanta, GA, where the ladies meet monthly for a day spent eating, drinking, talking, and reminiscing. The characters have spent a lifetime sharing happiness, tragedy, failure, and success and the book has time flashes of when the women were very young and just getting started in Life. There is a wonderful surprise ending. I highly recommend this book and I enjoyed reading it very much. I can't wait for the sequel.