Money Problems

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett is a lengthy book with parallel storylines that connect.

Birdie is a single, twenty-three(ish) year old woman living with her mother and grandmother in Footely, Mississippi during the Depression era. Hard times have forced Birdie to visit her sister Frances in Oxford. Frances married a wealthy banker, Rory, and Birdie is tasked with asking him for some money.

Frances and Rory live with his socialite mom, Mrs. Tartt. Frances volunteers at the local orphanage and has been trying to get in the good graces of the chairwoman, Mrs. Garnett. The second narrator, Meg, is an orphan here.

Meg (eleven years old) recounts how she ended up at the orphanage about two years earlier when her mother never came back from the store. Garnett treats the older girls terribly, but Meg is treated the worst. She is forced to sit in a moldy office all day instead of school with the other girls. She also is often verbally and physically abused by Garnett.

Eventually, Birdie spends some time at the orphanage to help them balance their books. This is how she meets Meg and finds out about her treatment. Time passes. Only a few days after Meg is adopted, Birdie also meets Meg’s mom, Charlie. She was hospitalized and in jail. There is a lot more to her story, which is shared when she stays with them.

Spoilers- Rory lost all of his family’s money and never paid house taxes before stealing everything else of value from the family home and running away. Frances and Mrs. Tart go to find him. Meanwhile, Birdie and Charlie plan to get some boarders and run a dance club to make the money everyone needs to get their lives back on track. However, the dance club is a front for a brothel.

Meanwhile, Meg is doing everything to make her adoption placement work with Tom and Lucille. Tom is the son of a very wealthy family. Lucille is a money grubbing alcoholic and Tom’s parents can’t stand her. This creates a pretty volatile situation for Meg.

While the plot took a turn I didn’t expect (brothel situation), I really enjoyed so much of the story. It is well written with so many great characters. I really enjoyed Birdie’s character, and found myself invested all the way until its satisfying conclusion.