He’d gone to considerable trouble, as a young man, not to be drafted during the Vietnam War—but the book had struck him as what he called a “women’s novel.” The phrase never failed to make Ruth think of a wide array of feminine-hygiene products. “About female friendship, wasn’t it?” he asked. But his ex-wife had read everything Ruth Cole had written. “She’s your biggest fan,” Scott Saunders said. (The ex-wife again!)
