“Better Luck Next Time” Is The Perfect Novel To Kick Off 2021

Or, how to find the humor in the midst of heartbreak.

In Over Coffee, writer, reader, and haphazard reviewer Angela Lashbrook chats with authors about their recent books, and quizzes them on their hot breakfast takes.

I feel blessed to have tapped out of 2020 in a state of joy, but I owe it to Julia Claiborne Johnson’s delightful, warm, and most importantly, funny novel Better Luck Next Time. Perhaps a novel about divorce — for that’s where the “better luck next time idea” comes in — ought not to be so amusing, but it’s a testament to Johnson’s lively wit and sparkling sense of humor that she wrote about what is theoretically a dismal topic and revealed it to be, in fact, an opportunity to find absurdity, joy, and, yes, love.

It’s 1938 in Reno, Nevada, and Ward Bennett is driving a stagecoach to the airport to pick up Nina, an heiress on her third divorce. Ward works at a divorce ranch, where wealthy women (mostly) stay for six weeks to establish residency in the state, after which they will be able to file for a relatively easy divorce. Tagging along for the ride is Emily, a runaway wife from San Francisco who, unlike Nina, isn’t so sure she’s making the right decision.

Over the next six weeks, Nina, Ward, Emily, and a handful of other characters at the ranch…