Introduction

(Meg Waite Clayton's national bestseller The Wednesday Sisters was a word-of-mouth sensation and book club favorite. Now the beloved author is back with a page-turning novel that explores the secrets we keep, even from those closest to us, and celebrates the enduring power of friendship.

Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court. Nicknamed ?the Ms. Bradwells? during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979?when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court?the four have supported one another through life's challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small. Betts was, and still is, the Funny One. Ginger, the Rebel. Laney, the Good Girl. And Mia, the Savant.

But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends? collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past?one that stirs up secrets they?ve kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever.

Once again, Meg Waite Clayton writes inspiringly about the complex circumstances facing women and the heartfelt friendships that hold them together. Insightful and affecting, The Four Ms. Bradwells is also a captivating tale of how far people will go to protect the ones they love.

Meg Waite Clayton on The Four Ms. Bradwells

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pearls
I?m the custodian of an embarrassment of pearls, the first of which I bought on my first trip overseas--to Spain one summer during law school--but the rest of which were gifts. One strand, improbably, came from the vice-mayor of Wuxi, China, at the end of an eleven-course dinner honoring my dad. Two are family heirlooms: a strand my dad gave my mom, who gave them to me; and a double strand like the ones on the cover of The Four Ms. Bradwells, which were my husband's grandmother's and then his mother's before coming to me. Like the pearls Ginger inherits from Faith in the novel, my two sets of family pearls are the ones I most enjoy lending to friends, my little sisterhood of the traveling pearls. A close third: my ?Paris pearls.?

My Paris Pearls are my favorite, only in part for the story that goes with them. Mac's and my honeymoon itinerary included a last few days in Monte Carlo, but we fell in love with the Italian Lake District before we made it there, and refused to leave. We planned a replacement trip to France for our anniversary, but by then I was pregnant and having complications; the baby's heart wasn?t beating, and when it started finally, my doctor suggested I stay close to home. The tickets were already bought, though, and with one stepson already studying in Paris, I suggested Mac take his other son in my place.

Long story short, there was Mac, with his sons, at a Monte Carlo roulette wheel, betting my birthday in honor of me. He slid his chips over higher odds possibilities to settle, 1,000 francs each, on the 11, 5, and 9. My birthday: 1/1/59. A croupier sent the little ball circling the tilted track. The Clayton boys watched the only way one can watch a roulette wheel: knowing the odds are impossible, but hopeful anyway. The ball, in its final slow circle, bypassed thirty-six numbers to drop into ? well, no one remembers where, but it wasn?t the 11, 5, or 9. Undaunted, Mac re-upped. 1,000 francs each. 11. 5. 9. Same circling ball. Same watching. Same hopefulness. The ball, in its final slow circle, again bypassed thirty-six other pockets to drop into ? the 11. 1/1. My birthday.

Heeding Einstein's advice, ?You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it,? Mac cashed in his chips and fled to Paris, where he chose a strand of pearls with a looped gold clasp that looks remarkably like the one at Betts's throat as she's considered for the Supreme Court.

Improbable? All my pearls come with improbable stories. But stories, like pearls, aren?t meant to be examined separate from the whole of their string. They?re meant to settle gently around your neck, to be enjoyed again and again, for moments or hours or days, and loaned to friends, and eventually passed out of one hand into another, to share the love. That's the hope I have for The Four Ms. Bradwells: that readers will come together to share this story, and pass it along to friends.

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Discussion Questions

From the publisher:

1- The four Ms. Bradwells have distinct Bradwell nicknames based on things that they revealed during their first law school class. Do you think these nicknames suit them? In what ways do you think each stays true to her nickname? In what ways do the women flout them?

2- What did you learn from the Law School Quadrangle Notes chapter epigraphs? What insights did they give you into the evolution of the Ms. Bradwells’ friendships that wasn’t conveyed in the rest of the narrative?

3- Ginger goes to visit Annie on her 18th birthday, just as Faith came to visit on her 21st. How do the two different visits reflect the different mother-daughter relationships? What do you think Ginger absorbed about mothering from Faith? Is she a better mother, or worse?

4- How do you think race factored into the Ms. Bradwells’ decision not to go public with the rape? Do you think it would have turned out differently if Betts or Mia had been raped instead of Laney?

5- What do you think compelled each of the Ms. Bradwells to study law? Why do you think none of them is still practicing in the traditional sense?

6- At one point, Mia muses on the four Bradwell mothers: “It strikes me how different Faith and Mrs. Z are, and yet how similar. How different Ginger’s and Betts’s relationships with their mothers were, and how similar, too. Were Laney and I luckier, to have mothers who wanted for us but didn’t expect?” What do you think she means by this? How would you compare Matka and Faith? How have their similarities and differences shaped their daughters?

7- Isabelle, in a fight with her mother, says that Mia is the happiest of the Ms. Bradwells. Do you think that’s true? Why do you think Mia never remarried?

8- Mothers are very important to the story, but fathers mostly lurk behind the scenes. Why do you think this is? How do you think each of the Ms. Bradwells was influenced by her male role models, or lack thereof? In what ways do you see this reflected in the next generation of Bradwells?

9- Why does Betts kept her conversation with Faith to herself for so many years? Do you agree with her that talking about it could have helped Ginger and Faith’s relationship? Do you think Betts suspected Faith of killing Trey? Did you?

10- Would The Four Ms. Bradwells have been a different reading experience without Ginger’s poetry, Laney’s Latin, Betts’s quirky turns of phrase, and Mia’s photojournalist’s eye for defining details? Why is it significant that Faith left the letter to Margaret wedged into the pages of Anne Sexton’s ‘Briar Rose’?
11- Reread the epigraphs to Part II and Part III, as well as Ginger’s thoughts on pages 200-202 about the New York Times article. Were you surprised by the statistics? How, if at all, did this novel change your perceptions about violence against women? Do you agree with Muriel Rukeyser’s answer to the question “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?”

12- When Ginger arrives on Cook Island, she quotes from Elizabeth Bishop: “Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?/Where should we be today?” How do you think she would have answered that question at the end of the book?

13- The book ends with Betts opening both a literal and figurative door for the Ms. Bradwells and their daughters. What do you imagine the future holds for Annie and Izzy and Gemmy and the rest of their generation? What sacrifices have their mothers and grandmothers made in their names, and what sacrifices they will make for their own daughters? What aspects of these relationships resonated with you most personally? Would you share this novel with your daughter? Your mother? Your best friend?

Weblinks

»	Publisher's Book Info
»	Author Meg Waite Clayton's web site
»	Meg Waite Clayton's Book Tour Dates
»	Author Q&A for book clubs

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