Better Luck Next Time
Book Feature - Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson
HBL Note: Have you heard of the “Reno Cure”? In the late 1930s, it was one of the only places women could get a legal divorce, no questions asked. So it’ll come as no surprise that Reno became known as the divorce capital of the country. What I hadn’t realized is that this phenomenon inspired the plot of, The Women, a Hollywood movie starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford & Rosalind Russell. And now, this phenomenon inspired the plot of Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson. Scroll down to read more.
Book Feature - Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson
From the publisher:
It’s 1938 and women seeking a quick, no-questions split from their husbands head to the “divorce capital of the world,” Reno, Nevada. There’s one catch: they have to wait six-weeks to become “residents.” Many of these wealthy, soon-to-be divorcees flock to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need.
Twenty-four-year-old Ward spent one year at Yale before his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now he’s earning an honest living as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap. Admired for his dashing good looks—“Cary Grant in cowboy boots”—Ward thinks he’s got the Flying Leap’s clients all figured out. But two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows: Nina, a St Louis heiress and amateur pilot back for her third divorce, and Emily, whose bravest moment in life was leaving her cheating husband back in San Francisco and driving herself to Reno.
A novel about divorce, marriage, and everything that comes in between (money, class, ambition, and opportunity), Better Luck Next Time is a hilarious yet poignant examination of the ways friendship can save us, love can destroy us, and the family we create can be stronger than the family we come from.
