MAGNOLIA WEDNESDAYS

MAGNOLIA WEDNESDAYS by Wendy Wax

From the back of the book:

At forty-one, Vivien Armstrong Gray has spent most of her life fighting to make it in investigative journalism, only to have it crumble after a bullet lodges in her backside during an exposé.  As if the humiliation of being the butt of everyone's jokes isn't enough, Vivi learns that she's pregnant, jobless, and very hormonal.  Maybe that explains why she actually says "yes" to a dreadful job covering suburban living back home in Georgia, a column she can only bear to write incognito.


Leaving her tiny apartment in New York, she reluctantly heads south to experience the suburban soccer-mom existence through her widowed sister's eyes.  Surrounded by minivans and bake sales, she has lots of material for the column.  Her sister's ballroom dance studio becomes her undercover spot where she learns about the local life while posing as an extra dance partner.  But Vivi's little stint starts throwing her for a loop as friendships develop, and a real relationship with her sister blossoms.  As she digs up her long-buried roots, and begins to secretly investigate her brother-in-law's death, she starts to wonder if life inside the picket fence is so bad after all...

I really got a kick out of this book.  The characters were great, and it was based here in Atlanta.  In fact, reading the articles that Vivi wrote about suburban living, I was wondering if she were writing about my own subdivision.  The soccer moms with their big SUV's plastered with magnets depicting every activity in which their children were involved, their vacation spots, their political leanings - I see these cars up and down my neighborhood streets.  The moms running hither and yon, taking their kids to lessons and practices and games,  they're all here in the book.

The book dealt with characters other than Vivi - her sister and two other members of the dance class were prominent in the story.  As were Vivi's teenage niece and nephew - the niece brought back vivid memories of the years that my granddaughter spent living with us as she finished high school.

I love books that get the story and the characters dead on - and this one did just that.