Polite Calamities
SYNOPSIS:
In a hazy 1960s Rhode Island summer, three disparate lives converge and combust in this riveting story of the empowerment women find in friendship, solidarity, and rage.
Winifred is blunt, opinionated, and outrageously colorful. In a community that demands domesticity, she simply doesn’t fit. When her wealthy husband suddenly dies, Winifred’s fellow society housewives no longer have a reason to play nice. Cast out entirely, Winifred throws roaring parties for the clerks and waiters that serve the town, finding the connections she’s been craving—and upsetting the gentle balance of her elite neighborhood in the process.
Flailing artist Marie wants to paint over her past before the painful memories consume her. On the brink of making a longtime dream come true, her newfound friendship with Winifred might be the key to finally moving forward—or her undoing.
High-society housewife June weathers a chronic pain that would make other women faint. With her veneer crumbling, she has no patience for the free spirit shaking up her community. Filled with a mixture of obsessive hatred and fascination for the outcast, June’s determined to destroy Winifred and return her life to the way it used to be.
When slow-simmering summer secrets and resentments finally reach the boiling point, everyone is at risk of being burned. Polite Calamities explores what “community” really means when societal survival is at stake, and what happens when women decide it’s time to stop behaving and start living.
Praise for POLITE CALAMITIES
“I adored this elegantly crafted tale of three beautiful messes crashing into one another amidst the backdrop of high-society 1960s Rhode Island. Toeing the perfect line between tenderhearted and diabolical, Gold’s latest won’t let you go until after the explosive and uplifting denouement.”
A note from the author
Dear Reader,
About 10 months ago, I told my husband, “I don’t know if I can pull this off.” I had just signed the contract for Polite Calamities and was poised on a metaphorical high dive, about to jump into edits on a project that scared the s*** out of me.
Polite Calamities was scary for a few reasons. Firstly, because one of the viewpoint characters (June) is perhaps the cruelest main character I’ve ever written—but I didn’t want to portray her as “just a villain.” I wanted to make her deeply sympathetic, relatable, and real. No pressure!
I was also intimidated by the setting; I knew very little about the location and time period when I started this project. Don’t worry, though, I did my homework: over the past year, I traveled the Rhode Island coast, conducted numerous interviews, and spent countless hours researching to ensure that I represented the (fictionalized) seaside village of Wave Watch as realistically as I could.
Mostly, though, I was intimidated by this book’s themes. I wanted to tell an ultimately uplifting story about the many colors of female friendship: the love, the solidarity, the betrayal, the societal pressure, and more. While I’d never dream of capturing all shades of such a topic in a single novel, I hope you find the portrayal in Polite Calamities thought-provoking, heartfelt, and inspiring.
All this is to say: this is the most ambitious book I’ve ever endeavored to write. And, therefore, 10 months ago, I wasn’t quite sure I could pull it off.
After hearing my concerns, my husband gave me a hug, kissed my head, and said—with gentle, encouraging certainty—“You can, and you will.”
So I did.
And you know what? I think it’s my best book yet.
– Jenni, July 2024