The Red Hat Club Rides Again

Cynthia Darlow's Southern drawl is a good choice for this story of six menopausal "Buckhead babes," lifelong friends and sorority sisters who meet at Atlanta's Swan Coach House tearoom to drink iced tea, discuss life, and tell jokes while wearing red hats. A confusing array of flashbacks covers a kidnapping, cancer, a pregnancy scare, and other day-to-day doings that lead up to a spa make-over cruise, complete with liposuction. Fans of THE RED HAT CLUB may be less confused than newcomers by the multiple story lines, characters, and timelines. While Darlow adjusts her voice for the dialogue spoken by various characters, the majority of the story is told from 50-something Georgia's perspective, leaving little room for vocal variation. D.T.H. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

February 28, 2005
Smith fans know that when 50-something females don red hats for lunch at Atlanta's Swan Coach House tearoom, mayhem ensues. Club members Susu (wild divorcée now studying law), Teeny (abandoned woman turned corporate mogul), Diane (displaced wife now fashion designer), Linda (unflappable Jewish mother now in crisis), and Georgia (married narrator newly in love with her husband) unite to save old pal Pru from addiction. Four of the five fly to Las Vegas, where they kidnap Pru from a casino with the help of a good-looking cowboy, and then the six reunite to help Pru confront her inner demons in rehab. They also help each other through personal and family challenges and then wrap everything up with a cosmetic surgery cruise. Talk about intervention. For all their mischief, these women on the verge of second adolescence retain core values of Southern womanhood: goodness, graciousness and grandchildren. With flashbacks to their younger days and the ladies' not-so-strict adherence to 12 Sacred Traditions ("No Lies," "No 'I Told You So's,' " etc.), the book's fun lies not in guessing how things turn out but in Smith's warm, chatty style and images of "mommy-faced" women prancing about on an ocean liner wearing nothing but high heels, sunglasses and, of course, red hats. Though attempts at hilarity can be hit and miss, and outrageous scenarios and easy solutions strain credibility, well, it's hard to keep good women down, as The Red Hat Club
's bestseller status proves.