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Ex-Wife is a find, a curio, a sort of time capsule of another time, another place. The story of a divorcée in 1929 when that wasn't such a common condition and usually reflected some degree of broken dreams. The reader might expect something like F. Scott Fitzgerald with Dorothy Parker and a hint of Jean Rhys. There's certainly a generous assortment of cynically Parkeresque comments such as:

"Casual lovers, so much more interested in themselves than me, always."

"Days of posing as an efficient young business woman ... nights of posing as a sophisticated young woman about town."

"There's no sense in going other places if you have to take yourself along."

"Men used to bring me violets and now they bring me Scotch. Liquor isn't a gift to a woman, it's just an investment in her."

and more!

Overall Ex-Wife isn't quite serious enough to be philosophical and not quite carefree enough to be facetious, occupying some odd sweet-spot in between. It's all too recognizably human and contemporary, with the same action and reaction and feelings that anyone might have now -- even if going back to America between the wars just prior to the Depression in a kind of Sex and the City way. The reader can't help but wonder what is autobiographical and what's not. Anyone interested in the novel should also look for the lurid "Dell Romance" dime-store cover from 1939. [3½★]