The Husband Bench or Bev's Book (The Snowy Series, #4)

I wasn't expecting Great Literature when I ordered this book. As one who has been a great fan of "The Cheerleader" since the mid-1970's and eagerly devoured its two sequels, I thought that a story written from Bev's point of view would be interesting and refreshing. MacDougall did not disappoint. As usual, her eye for detail is meticulous, and the plot is entirely believable. I do agree with other reviewers when they say that you should really read the books in sequential order. According to MacDougall's website she is planning to do a book about Puddles (who was always one of my favorite characters because of her outspokenness), then a final book about Snowy. I look forward to the publication of both. To the person who scoffed at Snowy's agoraphobia, as detailed in "Snowy," just allow me to say that I was once married to a guy who suffered from panic attacks. We had to get up and leave in the middle of a lovely dinner in a Thai restaurant in San Francisco because of one of them. My ex eventually sought medical help for his attacks; Snowy did not, which made me think she was being a big wuss, but, whatever.

This is the fourth in a series. It is excellent, well written and involving and engrossing. I first read The Cheerleader years ago and loved it. I read the book until it was in pieces. I was very captured by the characters. A few years ago I discovered the sequels and was thrilled to be able to see what had happened in the girls lives. It is amazing and I can not recommend it highly enough. I am an avid reader and this is clearly one of my favorite series. Dont miss it!! Jacky

Ruth Doan MacDougall does it again, writing yet another fan-pleasing sequel to her cult classic novel THE CHEERLEADER. This time, she takes a bigger chance than ever before and shows us life through the eyes (although still in the third person) of a member of "The Gang" other than Snowy, her buddy Bev. As the year 2000 begins, Bev has a solid career going in real estate and a husband with whom she's had some ups and downs, but from whom she's never completely broken away because underneath it all, they're still in love...and now he wants them to get back together for good. She agrees, but at the same time, she's pondering whether to take the next step in her career, and how living with Roger again would affect that...and asking herself whether she could really deal with that again. And then, out of nowhere, a new man enters her life...a much younger one...and now Bev finds herself obsessed with figuring out how to keep him there. That's all I'm going to say--for the rest, you're going to have to read the book. But I think every fan of THE CHEERLEADER will enjoy it immensely. I was very pleased with how the conclusion makes it pretty clear that this isn't the end...and that the next book is going to pick up the story with the next developments in the life of Puddles. (I wouldn't want to spoil it, but why do I get the feeling she's on her way back to Gunthwaite--not to mention a close encounter with the Gunthwaite High School cheerleading squad? Don't ask me why, just read this book!)

Though I've searched out and savored every one of Ruth Doan MacDougall's books (and some of her father's, too), in fiction she may be best known as the author of The Cheerleader, a 1973 novel introducing us to three best friends--Snowy, Bev and Puddles--in "Gunthwaite," her name for a small New Hampshire town near Lake Winnepesaukee, during the '50s. MacDougall followed up with further tales of the triumverate as they marry, raise families, lose parents and friends, and cope with inevitable life challenges in Snowy (1993), Henrietta Snow (2003), and now a book primarily about Bev, The Husband Bench, or Bev's Book. Though the novels could be read in any order, it's especially satisfying to catch up with MacDougall's characters chronologically, as one would like to with old friends. We learn, too, how these Granite State natives cope with the annual influx of summer visitors, as well as development and other changes in their home turf--even local, home-grown terrorism. At the end of Henrietta Snow, Bev has announced that she and her husband of forty years, Roger, have decided to "renew their vows" after a dozen years of what Bev terms "a bi-state marriage." During these years, Bev and Roger lived apart, saw each other on occasion, and found new romances that never quite sever Bev and Roger's bond. In this latest book, Bev works through her doubts and second thoughts about "renewing" full-time marriage with Roger, worries about his impending retirement, and plans to change her career as a real-estate salesperson. Bev encounters a whopper of a surprise early in The Husband Bench, and its resolution carries to--and most likely, past--the end of this wonderfully satisfying book. (You'll get no spoilers from me!) MacDougall is a sensitive and detail-rich chronicler of how women's lives and expectations have changed over the past half-century and more. My only disappointment, if you can call it that, is that I wanted the novel to be longer, and to read more about Snowy, her daughter Ruhamah, Snowy's lifelong love, Tom, and their friends and family. All of them seem more like living, breathing people than fictional characters. And has this wily author hinted that her next book might focus on Bev and Snowy's outspoken pal, Puddles? I hope so! And it can't come too soon for me! P.S. I learned from this book that a "husband bench" is where a spouse may perch while his wife shops. Since my husband and I virtually never shop together, for anything, this was new to me. But the phrase perfectly fits Bev, a fashionista before such a word existed, and still a knockout at age sixty.