Starting in the 1860s and going through the 1930s, this book takes place in a small Ohio town and covers the lives of the ladies in a literary club. By the end of this book I had the most complete sense of the passage of time, the bittersweetness of it all. ( )

Reminds one of Jane Austen in its comedy of manners style. Perfect picture of post-Civil War generations in the life of a small Ohio town and the changes of lifestyle and class divisions that ensue. I was sucked slowly into the lives of the two main families and the "ladies of the club". Worthwhile read. ( )

Here's what I read after reading in 1986: "Golly, what's to say? A detailed living of a life. The life occurred in middle, post-Civit War America, but that's a minor detail. A story of living, loving, dying. Told by someone who's been there (an 80-odd year-old woman)."

And here's interesting information from wikipedia (response to Lewis' Main Street and best seller years after written):

"From 1922 to 1930, Santmyer wrote three novels. The first two were published to little notice and the third was unpublished. She disliked Sinclair Lewis's negative portrayal of small town America in his novel, Main Street, and conceived of Ladies as an antidote.[1] However, since she worked full-time, she was unable to write very much before her retirement in 1959.

A collection of her nostalgic reminiscences of Xenia, Ohio was published as Ohio Town by Ohio State University Press in 1962. The director of the Press, Weldon Kefauver, encouraged her to write more. In 1976 she submitted eleven boxes containing bookkeeping ledgers, her manuscript of Ladies in longhand. Kefauver accepted the novel, but wanted it trimmed. By then, Santmyer was spending much of her time in a nursing home and she dictated changes to her friend Mildred Sandoe. The Press published the novel, printed 1500 copies and sold a few hundred, priced at $35, mostly to libraries. In 1983, Santmyer was forced for health reasons to move permanently into a nursing home.[1]

Ladies was awarded the 1983 Ohioana Book Award in the category of fiction, but otherwise gained little attention at the time.

Success
One local library patron, in returning the book, told the librarian that it was the greatest novel she had ever read. Another patron, Grace Sindell, overheard this and checked the book out herself. After reading it, she agreed with the assessment and called her son Gerald in Hollywood. He was at first reluctant to look at the book, believing that anything that was that good would already be taken. Unable to find a copy in California, he ordered one directly from the publisher and agreed that it had great potential. He convinced his Hollywood friend Stanley Corwin of the same and the two purchased movie, TV and republication rights. They then convinced Putnam to republish the book. Before republication, the Book-of-the-Month club chose Ladies as their main selection. Suddenly, Santmyer and her novel were a media sensation, including front-page coverage in the New York Times.

The paperback edition, published by Berkley in 1985, sold more than 2 million copies between June and September, making it the best-selling paperback in history at the time." ( )

"...And Ladies of the Club" is one of my favorite books. Yes, it is long; my current edition has 1176 pages. (I wore out the first paperback I had.) But it does what historical fiction is supposed to do, I think, which is to help you feel what it was like to live in the past. Santmyer writes about the years between the end of the Civil War and the early years of the Depression. She manages to cover small town (midwestern) manners and mores, fashion, politics, child rearing, parties, funeral practices, medicine, education, prejudices, and just about anything else you can think of, all the while telling the story of the various interconnected families who live in her fictional Waynesboro, Ohio. ( )

I had looked forward to reading this, since I love novels from days gone by, especially ones with enough pages so you can really sink your teeth into the story. But alas, I soon pulled them out again.

Ms. Santmyer chose to take what could have been said in around 500 pages and stretched it out to over 1,400, way too much for even the most ardent reader. This might not have been the case, had she concentrated on one family or a few main characters (like the wise Ms. Mitchell with "Gone With the Wind") instead of wanting to represent an entire town. She also made the error of covering too long a length of time - from Civil War days to before WWII - which stretches it too thin, and leaves a lack of character development, as too many people and too many years leave too little room for that. Chapters come across more like sketches of life in a small midwestern town, whereas I'd prefer details of life in a big city like Chicago any day. Nothing against small towns, but when that's the subject, I'd rather read a more average sized novel with less people coming and going.

There were several people I wish had never shown up at all, like the foolish doctor who threw his life away over the cold, materialistic woman he made the mistake of marrying. She left him for a rich man, taking their son with her, and he completely fell apart, despite his successful practice, and supportive family and friends. He was too weak to feel sorry for.

It just hit me, that I recall this character because, though a loser, he was more interesting than the other, more central ones. That about says it all. The book does have some merits, I'll give it that much, and if some brave soul wants to check it out, so be it, but if they're trying to choose between this and another book, it's best to go with the other. ( )