Small Town Girls [Hardcover]

Pamela Wallace (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1990

Bright, powerful, and accomplished, Kate, Val, Barbara, and Shelly live in a world of film industry soirees, parties on Malibu Beach, and European tours--until a twenty-year-old secret returns to haunt them. Reprint. PW.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Academy Award-winning screenwriter ( Witness ) Wallace concocts a consummately slick if slightly unbelievable tale about four women friends, all nearing 40, who learn the true meaning of success in the Having It All era. Kate, Shelly and Valerie have struck it big; they have left behind their small California town for glamorous careers (Kate's screenplay wins an Oscar, Shelly runs a cosmetics company, Valerie is a broadcast journalist). Each receives an urgent summons from their old friend and leader, Barbara, who, despite her classic combination of beauty, brains and privilege, has never escaped claustrophobic Visalia. Rushing to her side, the three find themselves reunited in a hospital waiting room: Barbara has attempted suicide. As they try to determine Barbara's motives, they each calculate the terrible cost of their fame and fortune--and their complicity in a fatal deed of 20 years ago that may have ruined Barbara's life. The steady revelation of closely guarded secrets keeps this potboiler simmering. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club alternates; TV rights to Grosbart/Barnett Productions.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Echoes of Rona Jaffe's Class Reunion resound in this updated version (1969-89) of four women reunited after 20 years at the hospital bed of one of them. The four are connected not only by their high school friendship but by a horrible incident that occurred on graduation night. In alternating chapters the author, who won an Academy Award for co-scripting Witness, traces the lives of the three who fled Visalia, California for "big-city dreams." Despite the standard trials and tribulations, each has become professionally successful: one is a scriptwriter, one a female Geraldo Rivera, one a cosmetics industry mogul. But in their search for opportunities their mothers never had, "we were slipped a bill of goods for some things we didn't realize we had bought," and personal fulfillment eludes them. Almost too late, they realize that "success isn't everything." The hackneyed theme isn't presented with any freshness here, but these soapy stories with their glamorous backdrops have netted Wallace a TV miniseries. Wait for it.
-Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 437 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (September 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312051581
• ISBN-13: 978-0312051587
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,990,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Readable, yes. Admirable, no., July 26, 2005

By 

Standifer (Cedar Rapids, IA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small Town Girls (Paperback)

I found this book in a thrift store and vaguely recalled having read a moderately positive review of it when it first came out, and thinking then that it sounded interesting. I did find it readable, although not to the "you can't put it down" degree. The writing is pedestrian, but not awful. The plot? Well, let's see. Imagine, if you will, that Estee Lauder, Oprah Winfrey, and Nora Ephron all went to the same high school in the same small town in the San Joaquin valley of California, and all befriended the same spoiled rich girl doctor's daughter and formed a clique. The four had little in common except their keen desire to get out of town as soon as possible and the fact that they dreamed big dreams. They remained close through the years as all achieved their dreams (though not happiness in their personal lives)... except the doctor's daughter, whose unplanned pregnancy derailed her dream of becoming a doctor herself. The book follows each of the women as they come of age in the 60s, and progress through the next 20 years after high school. None of the characters are particularly likeable. For four supposedly intelligent women, they do a lot of rather stupid things, and all of them seem to be morally bankrupt. When the plot reaches its soap opera-ish climax, I found myself simply shaking my head at some of the inane things this bunch would say. One particularly jolting scene was the last conversation between the screenwriter character, Kate, and the teenaged daughter of the friend who stayed behind in the small town. I won't reveal what was said, but I found the sentiment appalling and completely implausible that the daughter would have responded to what Kate said in the way the author has her doing. In my opinion, there are far better books out there for a day at the beach. Almost any of Oprah's Book Club entries would be a worthier choice.

3.0 out of 5 stars Cliched, but you can't help loving it., September 23, 2004

By 

Book Woman (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small Town Girls (Hardcover)

I have to admit I love this book, even tho it's got some pretty clunky cliches in it (a hold-over from Wallace's career as a screenwriter and romance writer). And she strains credibility a bit by trying to cram in every single Baby Boomer issue: women's lib, assassinations, rape, pre-marital sex, birth control, abortion, the draft, Vietnam vet syndrome, Amerasian kids, workplace sexism, AIDS, etc. etc. But if you can get past sentences like "Her green eyes glittered like a cat about to pounce upon its prey" and "She was transported to a feeling she'd never felt before," Wallace does manage to draw you totally into the lives of these 4 women and make you keep turning the pages to find out how everything turns out. You especially identify if you're from that era, but even non-Baby Boomers can get caught up in it. There's a reason writing like this sells - we all secretly love a good soap opera. Cliches or not, it works - and keeps us coming back for more.

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book in years, October 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Small Town Girls (Hardcover)

I received it, at 15 years old, as a christmas gift. It was one of the last NEW copies. I read it over and over, and at that time I didn't realize what I had. Unfortunately, in college, I loaned it to a friend and never saw it again.