The Red Hat Club
by Haywood Smith
List Price: $24.95
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0312316933
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Meet Georgia, SuSu, Teeny, Diane, and Linda--five women who've been best friends through thirty years since high school. Sit in when they don their red hats and purple outfits to join Atlanta's Ladies Who Lunch for a delicious monthly serving of racy jokes, iced tea and chicken salad, baskets of sweet rolls, the latest Buckhead gossip, and most of all--lively support and caring through the ups and downs of their lives. When Diane discovers her banker husband has a condo (with mistress) that he bought with their retirement funds, the Red Hats swing into action and hang him with his own rope in a story that serves up laughter, friendship, revenge, high school memories, long-lost loves, a suburban dominatrix, and plenty of white wine and junk food. From the 1960s to the present, The Red Hat Club is a funny, unforgettable novel that shows the power women can find when they accept and support each other.
This novel is a work of fiction about a group of women who belong to a group like The Red Hat Society. It has not been authorized or endorsed by The Red Hat Society.
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1. Why do you think the Red Hats have stayed friends for so long? Give at least three specific reasons. What's different about their relationships compared to friendships that don't last?
2. Discuss the role that loyalty and acceptance have played in the interactions between the characters.
3. Which of the Red Hats is your favorite, and why? Which woman is your least favorite, and why?
4. Many women choose to "look the other way" in troubled marriages. Do you think there were signs of Diane's husband's affair before the incident with the note? If so, why do you think she chose to overlook them? And why do you think she finally made the choice to confront the truth?
5. How do you feel about Georgia's expectations (or lack of them) for her marriage? At the end of the book, how do you feel about her chances for real happiness with John?
6. One of the main themes of the book is that it's never too late to make positive choices in our lives as women. What positive choices do the Red Hats make? Would you have chosen differently?
7. Another main theme of the book is the power women have when they choose to accept and support each other without qualification in a culture that conditions women to tear each other down both personally and professionally. Are there any positive examples of that support in your life? Share those as a group.
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