In the 1930s, it became in vogue for the well-heeled and unhappily married to head to Nevada to take advantage of their lax laws regarding divorce — stay in the state for six weeks and you can claim residency to get an immediate divorce. Enterprising folks began creating ranches and resorts that catered to soon-to-be divorcees. Better Luck Next Time is the tale of one such ranch, the Flying Leap, told oral history-style by Ward, one of the handsome young men that was hired on to serve as manual labor and eye candy for the ladies who came to stay at the ranch. Ward's story is filled with laughs, and love, and some truly fantastic characters, from ditzy Mary Louise who keeps pointing out that she's been to Paris, which is in France, to the many-times-divorced gasbag nicknamed the Zeppelin, to the fierce aviatrix Nina. It's a charming Depression-era tale of the ladies who weren't really impacted by the financial crisis, except that it meant their soon-to-be-ex-husbands were no longer able to support them in the ways they desired. A quick and fun story.
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