Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Simon & Schuster (1992), Edition: First Edition, 480 pages
Description
A national bestseller with close to one million copies in print, The First Wives Club was hailed for its "deliciously icy message--revenge is a dish best served cold" (Los Angeles Times). Now it's a major fall release from Paramount starring three of the most talented and popular actresses working today--Bette Middler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member emhromp2
This is a very nice book. The only drawback is that I had to keep a list of all the characters close at hand, because there are so many of them, and with similar names. This has never happened to me before.
The story is nicely organised, with enough action in every chapter and the tension builds up
The story is nicely organised, with enough action in every chapter and the tension builds up
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nicely. Also, the characters are not flat, they are real people. Show Less
LibraryThing member Jen42
I adore this book! Don't write it off because the movie of it was so bad - book is funnier, meaner and a LOT darker.
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
If you've seen the film based on this, well, this is quite different in a lot of the details, and is much raunchier, darker, crueler, meaner and more vindictive. It's a breezy fast easy read despite its thick length, but although light in that sense, I'd hardly call it fluffy.
The novel follows
No one would mistake this book for great literature--I found particularly irritating the hard-to-read attempts at depicting a heavy Spanish accent with spellings like "dey," "ees," "chou," and "asseestant" and the tendency to overuse "Well" to begin sentences. At times what's set in motion by the three seems too vindictive. With the husbands, it's more justice than revenge, but the scheme targets the new spouses too, and in all but one case, the second wives seem to me more the next victim of the ex than evil women who should be taken down.
But I nevertheless found this rather trashy book a very entertaining read and I enjoyed watching the developing friendship among the women and their personal growth after their divorces. Set in late 1980s New York City, the novel is a bit like a caper story for chicks with all the satisfaction of seeing an elaborate revenge scheme come together.
The novel follows
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three women: Elise Eliot Atchison, Annie MacDuggan Paradise and Brenda Morrelli Cushman are seemingly very different people. Elise, born to a WASPy rich, high society family, was a glamorous movie star in the Grace Kelly mold. Annie was the good Catholic "Mainline girl" who is thin, practical and proper. Brenda is a fat brassy, funny half-Sicilian and half-Jewish. But what all three have in common is that all of them are "first wives" dumped in middle age for young trophy wives and betrayed in various ways by their husbands. Elise is drinking too much, Brenda is eating too much, and Annie is trying to cope with crushing loneliness after sending off her teenaged Down's syndrome daughter to a residential home. Then Annie's receives a letter from an old friend, Cynthia, who just committed suicide--a letter that details the various betrayals of Cynthia's husband who had also discarded her for a younger woman. After Annie shares the letter with the others, they form "the First Wives Club" and vow revenge on Cynthia's ex-husbands and their own former spouses. No one would mistake this book for great literature--I found particularly irritating the hard-to-read attempts at depicting a heavy Spanish accent with spellings like "dey," "ees," "chou," and "asseestant" and the tendency to overuse "Well" to begin sentences. At times what's set in motion by the three seems too vindictive. With the husbands, it's more justice than revenge, but the scheme targets the new spouses too, and in all but one case, the second wives seem to me more the next victim of the ex than evil women who should be taken down.
But I nevertheless found this rather trashy book a very entertaining read and I enjoyed watching the developing friendship among the women and their personal growth after their divorces. Set in late 1980s New York City, the novel is a bit like a caper story for chicks with all the satisfaction of seeing an elaborate revenge scheme come together.
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LibraryThing member Krumbs
Read this in high school and it was a bit too adult for me at the time! I remember seeing the movie later--absolutely nothing like it. The movie did make me think about the book and I realized that the women here were more rounded and interesting that I usually find in general fiction.
LibraryThing member jlapac
I liked this book because the premise was that men underestimated their wives and their wives showed them that one should never underestimate anyone. I liked the attitude that the first wives take. It has a bit of man-hating in it, which I don't agree with.
LibraryThing member hopefully86
This is an easy read, but very enjoyable. Three women get burned by their respective husbands...and decide not to take it lying down. Not necessarily a how-to-get-revenge guide, but definitely something I'm sure that runs through everyone's mind when going through a divorce.
LibraryThing member johnsong4
I read this book years ago. I was a fan of the movie and thought I'd give the book a go. The book, in my opinion, was leaps and bounds better than the movie. The stories of each character including Cynthia went much deeper than the movie and it is definitely one i have been pushing onto people who
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enjoyed the movie. Show Less
LibraryThing member LDVerbos
I've always been a big believer of reading the book before watching the movie, but I've seen The First Wives Club movie several times and it's always something I turn on when it's on tv. So I thought the book must be as great as the movie. I couldn't have been more wrong.
The book isn't terrible,
For me, the best part was reading about the husbands and what was coming to them. Ultimately, this book could have been reduced by 100 pages and you wouldn't have missed much. Besides that, I think I'll stick with the movie.
The book isn't terrible,
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it's just not as fun and slap-stick comedy driven like the movie is. Everything is much darker and the things the men do is just repulsive in parts. Maybe it's also the time frame of when it was written (a la the early '90s) that some of the language seemed unnecessary and offensive. You can get your point across without having to use a derogatory term to describe someone. And most importantly, we get it, Brenda is fat. We don't need to be reminded of it every page.For me, the best part was reading about the husbands and what was coming to them. Ultimately, this book could have been reduced by 100 pages and you wouldn't have missed much. Besides that, I think I'll stick with the movie.
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LibraryThing member nordie
Don't get mad. Get everything.
When their best friend commits suicide over her divorce, Elise, Brenda and Annie decide enough is enough. Each was crucial to her husband's career. But now that the men are successful, they've traded in their wives for newer, blonder models.
Over lunch one day they form
Each woman, united in their being spurned by their husbands - often for younger models - and having been to school together, come together after the fourth of their group commits suicide. They then conive to get back all that they think they deserve, having contributed much to their husbands' current way of living.
Much better than the film, (which I dont remember having Diane Keaton's daughter being Down Syndrome, or Goldie Hawn's aging actress being a dignified near 60 year old dypso getting a younger boyfriend, or Bette Midler ending up as a middle aged lesbian) the book is a little harder and edgier - and covers some subjects that mid 90s Hollywood is clearly not ready for.
When their best friend commits suicide over her divorce, Elise, Brenda and Annie decide enough is enough. Each was crucial to her husband's career. But now that the men are successful, they've traded in their wives for newer, blonder models.
Over lunch one day they form
Show More
the First Wives Club. But this is no support group. This is the SAS in Chanel. Painstakingly, inexorably, they plan the downfall of the men who've wrecked their lives - and know that revenge has never tasted sweeter...Each woman, united in their being spurned by their husbands - often for younger models - and having been to school together, come together after the fourth of their group commits suicide. They then conive to get back all that they think they deserve, having contributed much to their husbands' current way of living.
Much better than the film, (which I dont remember having Diane Keaton's daughter being Down Syndrome, or Goldie Hawn's aging actress being a dignified near 60 year old dypso getting a younger boyfriend, or Bette Midler ending up as a middle aged lesbian) the book is a little harder and edgier - and covers some subjects that mid 90s Hollywood is clearly not ready for.
Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1992
Physical description
480 p.; 5.51 inches
ISBN
0671746936 / 9780671746933