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GOODNIGHT LADIES by Babs H. Deal

GOODNIGHT LADIES

By

Pub Date: Oct. 6th, 1978
Publisher: Doubleday

Liz, recently dumped by husband Stuart after 23 years, is the latest member of the yackety-and-booze group of divorced or unhappily married and philandering ladies in a cushy Florida enclave. In quest of her beatings, Liz tunes in on her friends' miseries and recreations, and all the rue seems to spring from the fact that ""women want to be people,"" a passion which, when dammed up, can result in dalliance with younger men. One of them, a specialist in tasteless ""dead baby"" jokes, gets a brief nod from Liz. But after a letter from Stuart's lawyer, booting her forever from their house, Liz returns to her childhood home in Alabama--and surprise, there is old friend Tommy, now a minister and a widower. A night of true and climactic love with the only man she ever considered a friend, and Liz is reborn. . . until Tommy issues the simple statement: ""I have a girl."" Liz crashes, only to revive, finally, with a Tara vision of Self which will have to be sufficient. At the close, Stuart (a character drawn in Basic Appalling) asks on the phone if she's found anyone. . . anyone he knows. ""Yes,"" says Liz, ""It's someone you know. It's me."" Right. Self-Discovery 101--for remedial readers only.