Temporary Address: Reno

by Faith Baldwin

Novel of different women who escape to Reno from the men in their lives.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Faith Baldwin attended private academies and finishing schools, and in 1914-16 she lived in Dresden, Germany. She married Hugh H. Cuthrell in 1920, and the next year she published her first novel, Mavis of Green Hill. Although she often claimed she did not care for authorship, her steady stream of books belies that claim; over the next 56 years she published more than 85 books, more than 60 of them novels with such titles as Those Difficult Years (1925), The Office Wife (1930), Babs and Mary Lou (1931), District Nurse (1932), Manhattan Nights (1937), and He Married a Doctor (1944). Her last completed novel, Adam's Eden, appeared in 1977.

Typically, a Faith Baldwin book presents a highly simplified version of life among the wealthy. No matter what the difficulties, honour and goodness triumph, and hero and heroine are united. Evil, depravity, poverty, and sex found no place in her work, which she explicitly intended for the housewife and the working girl. The popularity of her writing was enormous. In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, she published five novels in magazine serial form and three earlier serials in volume form and saw four of her works made into motion pictures, for an income that year in excess of $315,000. She also wrote innumerable stories, articles, and newspaper columns, no less ephemeral than the novels.

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many ways, this book, with its stories of women being "Reno-vated" as it used to be called, reminded me of the Clare Boothe Luce play The Women. The book, Temporary Address: Reno, contains seven short stories about women going to Reno to stay for six weeks or longer to establish residency and get a (for that time) quickie divorce. The stories were written in 1940 and 1941 according to the copyright page and the looming war serves as a backdrop.

The first story, "Pay for Your Freedom," is interesting but a bit uneven. The main character, Kathleen Ballinger, is a famous dressmaker (just like the heroine in Baldwin's Woman on Her Way ) who comes to Reno to divorce her long-estranged husband. I didn't feel like the story ever really found its stride, though. It seemed to be going nowhere until the very end when a blackmail plot and a new romantic interest for the heroine sprang up. But perhaps the first story was more about setting up the other stories, since many of the same characters appear throughout.

The second story, "Yesterday's Heartbreak," was a bit of an old scenario--a young couple whose marriage had been derailed by meddling relatives--but was well done.

The third story, "October Crossroads," is where the book really got going. This story was a deeper, more fleshed out look at divorce and how it affects entire families. It explores whether a wife has a responsibility to herself, her children, and even her straying husband, to fight for a marriage that he wishes to end. Back in the day, when spouses could refuse to grant divorces, these were questions that people wrestled with, and this story provides a vivid example of how divorce is like a stone dropped in a pool: the ripples spread and affect many more people than the couple involved.

The fourth story, "Repent at Leisure," is a contrast to the other stories where wealthy husbands funded the stay in Reno and provided a generous settlement for the soon-to-be ex-wife. In this story, a poor young woman travels by bus to Reno and finds a job so she can earn the money for her divorce. The story also provides a warning about the unscrupulous attorneys in Reno who preyed on desperate people. In fact, all the stories are an interesting glimpse into the cottage industry that was divorce in Reno.

The fifth story, "There's Always Dawn," is a heartbreaking look at the women who make a career of marrying and divorcing men. The heroine, Claire Percival, is in Reno for her third divorce and has her soon-to-be fourth husband in tow. But this time, instead of being the younger woman marrying the wealthy older man for his money, Claire is the older woman being courted by a younger man. The story makes clear just why Serge is marrying her, and the reader cringes along with every slight and betrayal as Serge's eye wanders to another, younger woman. It's a rather horrible warning against becoming one of the desperate, frenetic women who discards husbands like last year's dresses that Luce described in her play.

The sixth story, "The Long Journey," follows a women who's divorcing her cruel, controlling husband, and becomes acquainted with a woman who's in Reno very much against her wishes. This woman's husband, not she, wants the divorce and the story follows both women as they try to cope with the destruction of their marriages.

And finally, the seventh story, "I'll Never Marry!," explores once again the effect of divorce on children. In this case, the heroine of the story, Lisa Jennings, is the daughter of a woman who's in Reno for the third time. Lisa is disillusioned and lonely, and even though she is twenty-three years old, is completely tied to her mother who refuses to let her grow up and strike out on her own. The story contains the philosophy behind Baldwin's book: her belief that marriage was still a strong, worthy institution and that despite all the publicity of divorce and bad marriages, "that hundreds and thousands of happy and united homes all over the country are unsung. Men and women living together, loving each other, bringing up children."

In this modern era of declining marriage rates and instant, no-fault divorce, it's interesting to look back on a time when marriage was still defended and divorce was still controversial. I very much enjoy Baldwin's writing style and am looking forward to discovering more of her stories.