The Four Ms. Bradwells: A Novel [Hardcover]

Meg Waite Clayton (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 22, 2011

Meg Waite Clayton’s national bestseller The Wednesday Sisters was a word-of-mouth sensation and book club favorite. Now the beloved author is back with a page-turning novel that explores the secrets we keep, even from those closest to us, and celebrates the enduring power of friendship.

Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court. Nicknamed “the Ms. Bradwells” during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979—when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court—the four have supported one another through life’s challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small. Betts was, and still is, the Funny One. Ginger, the Rebel. Laney, the Good Girl. And Mia, the Savant.

But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends’ collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past—one that stirs up secrets they’ve kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever.

Once again, Meg Waite Clayton writes inspiringly about the complex circumstances facing women and the heartfelt friendships that hold them together. Insightful and affecting, The Four Ms. Bradwells is also a captivating tale of how far people will go to protect the ones they love.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Meg Waite Clayton on The Four Ms. Bradwells

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pearls
I’m the custodian of an embarrassment of pearls, the first of which I bought on my first trip overseas--to Spain one summer during law school--but the rest of which were gifts. One strand, improbably, came from the vice-mayor of Wuxi, China, at the end of an eleven-course dinner honoring my dad. Two are family heirlooms: a strand my dad gave my mom, who gave them to me; and a double strand like the ones on the cover of The Four Ms. Bradwells, which were my husband’s grandmother’s and then his mother’s before coming to me. Like the pearls Ginger inherits from Faith in the novel, my two sets of family pearls are the ones I most enjoy lending to friends, my little sisterhood of the traveling pearls. A close third: my “Paris pearls.”

My Paris Pearls are my favorite, only in part for the story that goes with them. Mac’s and my honeymoon itinerary included a last few days in Monte Carlo, but we fell in love with the Italian Lake District before we made it there, and refused to leave. We planned a replacement trip to France for our anniversary, but by then I was pregnant and having complications; the baby’s heart wasn’t beating, and when it started finally, my doctor suggested I stay close to home. The tickets were already bought, though, and with one stepson already studying in Paris, I suggested Mac take his other son in my place.

Long story short, there was Mac, with his sons, at a Monte Carlo roulette wheel, betting my birthday in honor of me. He slid his chips over higher odds possibilities to settle, 1,000 francs each, on the 11, 5, and 9. My birthday: 1/1/59. A croupier sent the little ball circling the tilted track. The Clayton boys watched the only way one can watch a roulette wheel: knowing the odds are impossible, but hopeful anyway. The ball, in its final slow circle, bypassed thirty-six numbers to drop into … well, no one remembers where, but it wasn’t the 11, 5, or 9. Undaunted, Mac re-upped. 1,000 francs each. 11. 5. 9. Same circling ball. Same watching. Same hopefulness. The ball, in its final slow circle, again bypassed thirty-six other pockets to drop into … the 11. 1/1. My birthday.

Heeding Einstein’s advice, “You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it,” Mac cashed in his chips and fled to Paris, where he chose a strand of pearls with a looped gold clasp that looks remarkably like the one at Betts’s throat as she’s considered for the Supreme Court.

Improbable? All my pearls come with improbable stories. But stories, like pearls, aren’t meant to be examined separate from the whole of their string. They’re meant to settle gently around your neck, to be enjoyed again and again, for moments or hours or days, and loaned to friends, and eventually passed out of one hand into another, to share the love. That’s the hope I have for The Four Ms. Bradwells: that readers will come together to share this story, and pass it along to friends.

From Booklist

Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters (2009), has created another tale about a group of female friends that tells the stories of many women. Mia, Lainey, Betts, and Ginger become best friends at law school in 1979, at the cusp of the feminist movement. Now Betts is navigating a Senate hearing to confirm her Supreme Court appointment, and she and her friends have reunited. When a long-buried, dark story from their shared history is dug up, the four escape the media at Ginger's family's home on a remote island, which is also the scene of the controversial event. There the women reflect on their past, their relationships with each other and their mothers, and how societal norms led them to hide shocking sexual abuse. Clayton unfolds the story through flashbacks and present-day narration in each woman's voice. Despite some clunky exposition, this is a stirring and compelling novel about women's changing roles. --Aleksandra Walker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Edition edition (March 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345517083
• ISBN-13: 978-0345517081
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #959,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Meg Waite Clayton is the nationally bestselling author of four novels: THE FOUR MS. BRADWELLS, THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, the Bellwether Prize finalist THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT, and the forthcoming THE WEDNESDAY DAUGHTERS (all Random House Reader's Circle selections and major book club picks). Her books have been translated into languages from German to Lithuanian to Chinese. She's written for The Los Angeles Times, The San Jose Mercury News, The Miami Herald, Writer's Digest, Runner's World, The Literary Review, and public radio, and for Ms. and Forbes online. A graduate of the University Michigan and its law school, she lives in Palo Alto, California. www.megwaiteclayton.com; facebook.com/novelistmeg; @megwclayton

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#9 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

#12 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

#9 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

#12 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting and poignant novel about women's lives April 10, 2011

By Harriet Chessman

Format:Hardcover

This novel is compelling in two ways. First, the story of what happened one spring break on an island in the Chesapeake Bay, on the estate of a wealthy and politically well-connected family, thirty years earlier, is in itself riveting, especially in the last two-thirds. It's a disturbing sequence of events that is unfolded through the voices of 4 friends (young law students) who had been together that week. One of the most interesting aspects of this story is that all four voices are necessary for the "who, what, when, where, and [especially] why" to become whole and of a piece. Entering a weekend in which these 4 old friends have been thrust together again under the cloud of those earlier events, each of them only holds part of the story. It's not until they start talking together in earnest that the whole picture can be revealed.

The second aspect I find compelling is the nature of these women's lives. Each woman is sifting through her own life, her relationship to her mother, her choices in marriage (or her choice not to marry). Each woman has at least one aspect of her life that has continued to cause her worry and pain. I appreciate the honesty of these women, as they do this sifting. I appreciate the honesty, too, about their jealousies and envies with regard to each other.

One of the central figures, for me, in this novel is Ginger, whose house and estate on the island became the scene of the central events 30 years before. Her relationship with her high-profile, busy, accomplished mother comes across as so believable and sad, especially when it starts to become clear how little her mother was able to know about Ginger's vulnerable girlhood.

I recommend this to readers who love a good "whodunnit," and also to those who value an honest take on the things that hamper women, that make it difficult to be open and trusting of each other. This is a strong read that leaves you thinking about your own life, and all that has remained unsaid.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Didn't want to put it down April 12, 2011

By De Las Montanas

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

From the cover, I expected a sweet and not-too-challenging story of friendship among women. What I got instead surprised me: a smart, completely engaging, provocative story about four ambitious young women who meet in law school and remain friends for thirty years, bound not just by mutual affection and admiration but by a dark secret they share. Clayton doesn't shy away from the envy and petty complaints that can plague long-lasting friendships, and she is brilliant at tapping the complexities of sustaining and balancing love relationships, families, and friendships with high-powered careers under the scrutiny of a public eye that cares more for scandal than the truth. She skillfully weaves four narrative voices to reveal a story in small increments that kept me wanting more. I couldn't wait each day until I had the chance to get back to it, and when it was over, I felt a kind of personal loss: I found I'd become completely entwined in the lives of these women and Clayton's manner of storytelling.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy follow-up and a finely wrought novel March 22, 2011

By Brenda R. Vantrease

Format:Hardcover

Meg Clayton has done it again. The Four Mrs. Bradwells is a worthy follow-up to her best-selling Wednesday Sisters. This well-crafted novel, written in elegant prose, is a celebration of friendship--but so much more. Although it pays appropriate homage to women's roles as wives, mothers, and daughters, it also celebrates women who have dared to reach beyond expected norms to chase their dreams by reminding us just how hard the struggle was.

And, it's a really good story. The exploits of these four friends will make you laugh, and make you cry and maybe even make you a little angry, while the secret at the story's heart will keep you turning pages until all is revealed.