In 1985, Diane Daly, Nikki Barone, and Orla Nevins are in Indiana, playing the roles of Tevye’s daughters in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Being cast in the summer stock production is a major coup for the struggling actresses, and during the run of the show, despite a few jealousies here and there, they form a tight bond. Forty years later, Diane has just returned to her Santa Monica home after a three-day evacuation due to the wildfire in her area. She is lucky—the fire did not quite reach her over-mortgaged property, though everything is covered in ash. She has been considering suicide, but now that she and her house have survived the fire, she decides the idea of killing herself is absurd (“How selfish to take oneself out of the picture when the picture had changed so dramatically”). She calls to check in with Nikki, who is living in Colorado and wondering why she ever agreed to leave New York. As they talk, they realize neither of them has heard from Orla, although Diane has tried to contact her. Concerned, Diane heads off to New York to find her, with Nikki joining her a couple of days later. Butterfield’s narrative toggles back and forth between the past and present. In alternating chapters, she fills in the protagonists’ backstories and experiences (individually and together) through the decades. Set against the backdrop of civil protests, the AIDS epidemic, the World Trade Center attack, and the Covid-19 pandemic, the story is packed with entertainment-world tidbits and references, cultural signifiers, and the music of a country in constant, rapid change. Diane, Nikki, and the quirky, dramatically romantic Orla differ in temperament and lifestyle choices, each following diverging paths as they do battle with life’s personal and professional slings and arrows, yet always managing to overcome periods of separation and even betrayal to reconnect with one another. Butterfield’s acerbic prose provides ample humor and social commentary, adding a joyful ambiance to a narrative occasionally heavy with emotional baggage and tragedy.
