Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

The club reads Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask by Dr. David Reuben.

As Audrey prepares snacks for the book club, she is hit by the realization that Paul is having an affair. Audrey is accustomed to having feelings or premonitions about certain things; her grandfather’s spirit visited her after his death and told her this was a gift. Once, she woke from sleep to tell Paul to call his sister and get everyone out of the house; it turned out there was a fire.

Audrey produces a joint at the book club and the women smoke it while they discuss their sex lives with their husbands. Kari talks about her heart healing after her husband’s death when it had been nothing but shards and dust. Audrey has a sudden feeling about her infant Michael and runs to his crib to find a sheet wrapped around his neck. Faith asks if Audrey can see her past. Faith writes a letter to her mother thinking about how her mother didn’t have women friends and how surprised Faith was to learn her mother had gotten good grades in school.

The club reads Fear of Flying by Erica Jong.

Merit is surprised when her father calls to apologize for their past rifts. He dies the next day. Eric isn’t supportive about her grief. Though Merit enjoys the rebellion of putting garbage in her hair, she gets a haircut. Eric begins hitting her but stops when his two daughters intervene. He is inattentive to them, and Merit tries to make up for it. Merit, who is pregnant again, goes into labor at the book club, and the other women help her deliver a healthy baby girl.

The club reads The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

Faith is growing concerned about her son Beau’s mannerisms, which strike her as feminine. She wants him to play with other boys when he would rather play with dolls. He reveals that he is being pushed around on the playground at school. Faith meets with the principal to demand support and tries to teach Beau to act more like the other boys. She realizes “that he had secrets that he had to hide. He was his mother’s son, after all” (167).

The club reads The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan.

Freesia Court is shaken by scandal when Leslie Trottman’s husband runs away with a teller at his bank. There is a gay couple on the block now; Stuart and Grant bought a house that was for sale. Audrey and Paul are divorced. Slip’s brother Fred is suffering flashbacks from combat and calls Slip for moral support. Slip tries to help him, but Fred drops out of school, begins drinking heavily, and leaves home. When he shows up at Slip’s house after traveling, she finds him hard to live with; he stays in the basement, avoids people, and only comes up to eat. He sits in when Slip hosts the book club and tells a story about how, when he was on patrol in Vietnam, his buddies killed a pair of Viet Cong teenagers. His comrades raped the girl while she lay dying, and Fred didn’t stop them. Slip is horrified that he told this story and is heartbroken over what he witnessed.

The club reads Roots by Alex Haley.

Kari reflects that she is enjoying her halcyon days. Julia is the ringmaster for Freesia Court’s annual Labor Day circus, and Kari is proud of her beautiful daughter. The neighborhood children perform various acts, including Merit’s three daughters, who are all very close. Merit’s husband Eric is there, and Merit’s demeanor changes. The kids sleep outside in a tent while Jerry and Wade supervise. Slip, Faith, Audrey, and Kari sit on Kari’s front porch talking and hear a crash at Merit’s house. They see her outlined in her door, then yanked backwards. They rush to her house to find Eric beating her.

The others demand he leave her alone while Faith runs to her house and gets Wade’s gun. Faith threatens Eric and tells him to release Merit or she’ll fire. They take Merit to Kari’s house and discuss how the police are unlikely to intervene if they report the incident. Merit admits how long the abuse has been going on, and that her daughters have witnessed it. While the others sleep, Faith stays awake and on guard with the pistol. She writes to her mother later that Wade was livid, and that the pistol wasn’t loaded with bullets. Eric sent all the housewives flowers, but Audrey took Merit and the girls to a hotel.

The club reads The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombek.

Audrey is feeling low and alone on her 37th birthday. Paul has the boys. Aubrey goes to a movie and runs into Stuart and Grant. They take her out to a bar, then to the airport to watch planes landing, and let her talk. She shares how her marriage disintegrated once she knew Paul was having affairs, even sleeping with the bartender when Audrey went with him to a fraternity reunion. Their divorce was amicable, unlike Merit and Eric’s. Audrey is upset because she quarreled with Slip when Slip shared that her daughter, Flannery, said that Audrey’s son Davey was getting into fights at school. Audrey knows her son occasionally causes trouble but she’s upset with Flannery for being a tattletale. Both she and Slip say things that are a little too honest, and they haven’t spoken since. Grant says Audrey should come to church with them.

The club reads Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell.

Merit wishes that Audrey and Slip would make up. She’s become close to Audrey, as they are both divorced, and she loves her book club. Eric’s sister Joanie apologizes to Merit about not telling her what she was getting into when she married Eric. Their father was abusive, and Joanie could tell that Eric was abusing Merit by the way Merit watched him. Faith writes to her mother that Bonnie asked about the family tree for a school project and Faith made one up.

The club reads Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurty.

The Angry Housewives collect, save for Slip, who is still fighting with Audrey. The kids play while the women converse, and the older girls start their own book club. The women discuss Audrey’s confidence and Slip’s convictions. Faith suggests a snowball fight to try to lure Slip outdoors, but Jerry comes out while they are in the yard and says Slip is sleeping. Later, Kari, sees Audrey and Grant in Slip’s yard, building a snowman holding a white flag.

The club reads A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

Slip gets up early to go for a morning run and sees the snowman in her yard, holding a stick of now frozen olives and a note from Audrey. She laughs, knocks on Audrey’s door, and hugs her. Slip talks with her daughter, and Flannery admits she needs to tell the truth when it means sticking up for someone else. Slip wants to get a job and Jerry holds a mock interview. He decides her perfect job is starting a revolution. Grant gives Slip information about a nonprofit organization, and Slip looks forward to working outside the home and doing something that helps others in tangible ways.