Invented August: An Imperfect Escape to Capri

THE VERY ACHE THAT BONDS THEM WILL TEAR THEM APART

When Lily, a chic menswear designer, is offered a photo editorial in Italy, she invites her best friends to join her on the Isle of Capri for a dream escape from husbands and children. Friends for over 12 years, wives of golf buddies, these six are bravely enduring their marriages with a Doris Day morality. But it’s 1979 in swinging L.A., where the stigma of divorce has all but dissolved.

They head off with the best of intentions, so sure that they will find Renewal. Each has reason to crave it:

LILY, a peacemaker and born storyteller, honors her marriage to an emotional tyrant although clearly beaten down.

GRACE, a model, as striking as she is opinionated, is a devoted wife but remains bravely unfulfilled.

PENN, a prim, dutiful perfectionist, ignores her husband’s frequent and extended cocktail meetings as if their church attendance will bring transformation.

DEEDEE, a bodacious bombshell, a brassiere-fitting specialist, grows weary of her immature husband who despises his stepdaughter and mother-in-law.

CAT, a self-absorbed dreamer, grasps for purpose, railing against her traditional Italian husband and his meddlesome, dominating mother.

AMELIA, a beauty, nurturing and resilient, chooses the security of marriage while resenting her husband’s philandering.

Their mutual expectation of renewal—rekindled patience for flawed spouses and unruly children—warps violently given Capri’s temptations. Two factions form: four seduced by the balm of exotic male attention while emboldened by anonymity, versus pristine Lily and hypercritical Grace. The conflict escalates; the friendship unravels. The wives return to face their newly determined husbands.

Not long thereafter, a serious occasion wrenches an obligatory promise from each forcing them back to Capri to face the consequences of their blunders—including a secret brutal crime.

GENIE FRISBEE HIGBEE Since childhood I've been a spinner of imaginary tales-encouraged by my sister Alice, first collaborator and eager listener. Co-writing with Melissa, long time friend, seems a natural extension of that early enjoyment. My story ideas? They're prompted by the complexities and pleasures of relationships and fueled further by my love of music, artwork and water. Water? Well I've lived beside water, always, or so I say (be it factual or not): on the sand dunes of California's restless Pacific, the clay shores of Georgia's Lake Rabun, the reedy banks of Ontario's shallow Lake Nipissing and currently, the basalt ridges of Idaho's Lake Hayden. But in imagination I may be found inhabiting Capri, an isle rising dramatically above Italy's Tyrrhenean Sea. No surprise then, that Capri is the capricious setting for Invented August. There, the granite Sphinx (dreamed of and recovered by Axel Munthe) may pose riddles for fictional characters...and the turquoise waters below may reflect back revelations, whether asked for or not. Breaking free from a career as a freelance writer/designer I now concentrate on women's fiction, poetry, and oil painting. MELISSA FARNSWORTH I love Los Angeles. My roots are deep, I can't imagine ever leaving. I was born in Hollywood and live less than a mile from where I grew up. As a kid my friends and I would hike up to the Hollywood Sign where we'd eat our sack lunches. When I was growing up my dad was a stuntman, but I found little significance in the fact that Hollywood was a magical place where many come to realize a dream. I was nonchalant when Rowdy Yates (a very young Clint Eastwood) visited our mountain cabin, water-skiied behind our boat, drank beer on the beach with my father. I finally did get it, though it was much later. By the time my dad became an actor I was grown and could fully appreciate the fascinating story of his life and his contribution to the movie industry. A common sight around our house was piles of script pages, old and new. Mostly the pages dealt with action meant for my dad, but sometimes I'd hit the mother lode: dialogue. I mainly ascribe my love for dialogue to those scripts. Done with the business of raising children and working a demanding job...I now have time for the luxury of indulging in grandchildren, traveling with my husband, tending friendships, reading Jane Austen (again and again), and that other passion that has always been a part of me, writing.