This novel is the story of two women, Kathryn and Alice, who both star in a popular, wholesome comedy series in the 1950s, and over time find themselves very drawn to each other. But they have no route to anything other than a nervous, secret relationship and inevitably that ends in being caught. That ending means neither really finds closure for it, and all the feelings bubble back to the surface in the early 1980s when they next meet in a reunion show, not helped by Kathryn's alcohol and drug issues, and Alice's eating disorder. In the end, the difficult reunion does lead to a way to start handling the emotions still tangled up in the secret 1950s relationship.

I enjoyed this book and found the characters and their relationship interesting, but felt that the alcohol and drug issues on the one hand and the eating disorder on the other were tacked on to signpost these characters had Issues and that women's lives behind the conventional facades could easily be repressed and unhappy, but neither felt quite an organic part of the character. ( )