I listened to The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett as an audiobook, and I think that was exactly the right way for me to experience this book. At nearly twenty-nine hours, it is a commitment, but it rarely felt like one. The narration certainly helped, but the characters really carried the book for me.

Meg completely won me over. She is smart, observant, mischievous, and very funny, often at moments when her circumstances give her very little reason to laugh. Her humor never feels like something added simply to lighten the story. It feels like part of how she survives.

Birdie has her own wonderful sense of humor, quieter and drier than Meg’s. I loved her practicality and the way she gradually finds herself involved in situations she certainly could not have anticipated when she first arrived in Oxford. I also loved watching love find Birdie in such an unexpected place. It felt right for a woman who had spent so much of her life simply doing what needed to be done.

And then there is Frances, determined to be proper, respectable, and accepted by the right people. Putting her alongside Birdie and the other women creates some of the book’s funniest moments. She can be maddening, but she is also part of what makes this group work.

Mrs. Tartt surprised me perhaps more than anyone. I thought I knew exactly who Rory’s mother would be. I was wrong. Watching this very proper Southern matriarch respond when circumstances forced her outside the boundaries of respectability was one of my favorite parts of the story.

Charlie Lefleur, Meg’s mother, brings something different. Her resilience is fierce. What happened to her could have destroyed her, but her determination to get back to Meg drives so much of what follows.

And what follows is quite a ride.

At some point, these women move from trying to solve their individual problems to participating in a venture that is risky, highly questionable, and more than a little outrageous. I knew I probably should not be cheering some of their decisions. I cheered anyway.

That was part of the fun.

Stockett somehow makes you understand how these women arrived at choices they never would have imagined making. Their circumstances are desperate, the rules are stacked against them, and suddenly the unthinkable begins to look surprisingly reasonable. I found myself rooting for them to pull it off, even while thinking, This is a terrible idea.

That is also where the found family element of The Calamity Club really worked for me. These women do not simply become friends. They irritate one another, judge one another, make one another laugh, surprise one another, and eventually begin taking enormous risks for one another. By the end, they have become necessary to each other.

My one real disappointment was the ending.

After spending nearly twenty-nine hours with Meg, Birdie, Frances, Charlie, Mrs. Tartt, and everyone else, it felt too quick. The plot is resolved, but emotionally, I was not finished with these characters. I wanted another chapter. Better yet, I wanted an epilogue. I wanted to know where they were after life had settled a little.

Perhaps that is the clearest indication of how much I enjoyed this book.

I did not want more because the story was incomplete.

I wanted more because I was not ready to leave the Calamity Club.

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