To this day, if you want a quickie divorce, you go to Reno. Six weeks of residency and bingo-bango: freedom. This is what our Depression-era heroines do in Six Weeks in Reno, hoping to divorce their lousy spouses and move on with their lives. It’s a very flawed book but parts of it do sing. 

Our central figure is Evelyn Henderson, who has two children in college. Her marriage to their father, Dean, has long been a dead end – and Evelyn is harboring the deep, dark secret as to why that is. She settles into the Flying N Ranch, a divorce ranch, where women wait out the six-week period required to file for a quickie divorce. While there, she begins to love the ranching life and develops close bonds with her fellow divorcees.

There’s the ambitious but secretive Thistlena; Madeline, running from an abusive marriage; the blunt Candace; the spirited Beatrice; and Tessa. The women are escorted and have their itineraries arranged for them by foreman Arthur. Together, they scheme up futures for themselves, fall victim to inappropriate men, and suffer attempted rape, drug addiction and racism. One of the women will get a back alley abortion. And Evelyn will fall for Sundown, a local cowpoke. Will she give in to her desires and let him poke her? Or will she return to New Jersey.

Six Weeks in Reno suffers from stiff, wooden prose that feels oddly old-fashioned and detracts from Evelyn’s dramatic quest for freedom and joy. You sympathize with her, but lord, she’s judgmental. She changes a bit, but not enough. I suppose her ending is realistic, but it felt preachy.

Beatrice stands out as the character who changes for the most – sadly the worst, affected by trauma as she is. But the other women evolve too and I liked some of their stories. It’s Evelyn who’s the problem. She witnesses many horrors, experiences a genuine sexual awakening– and makes a choice that suggests none of this has altered her at all. I loved all of the supporting characters but not her, and that’s sad, because we live in her head. The novel really would have worked worked better without her!