Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes: A Novel
Three 40-something women married to partners at an Ithaca, Ga., law firm form a First Wives Club south of the Mason-Dixon line in Holton's slapstick revenge tale with serious undertones. Affluent housewives Nita Broadwell, Eadie Boone and Lavonne Zibolsky try to fill the emptiness of their lives: quiet Nita devours soft-porn romance novels and lusts after her carpenter to assuage the hurt caused by her controlling husband, Charles; artistic Eadie stalks her husband, Trevor, who's about to leave her for his 20-something secretary; and formerly career-minded Lavonne, a brassy Northern Jewish transplant, gobbles ice cream and bagels to compensate for her passionless marriage to Leonard. At a disastrous, margarita-fueled holiday party for the firm, they discover the truth about their husbands' annual hunting trip and realize they're united by more than friendship and disgruntlement: all of their husbands have been chasing hookers, not wild game, on this getaway. With Eadie as the ringleader, they plot to sabotage the good ole' boys' trip. Adventure and comeuppance ensue, culminating with the gals' rebellious attendance at the subversive Kudzu Ball, where time-honored Southern traditions are parodied. Though this debut strives to entertain while skewering idiosyncratic social mores in the New South, it lacks real drama.(May 16)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.