The Last Girls

“Every true story ends terribly, if you follow it far enough....”
Four women head off to recreate a trip down the Mississippi they first took many years ago when they were girls in college. The four gather at the behest of the husband of Baby, one of the original group of girls, a girl who had a strong influence on the lives of all the women, and who has just died unexpectedly in a tragic accident.
The four quirky women, the Last Girls of the title, Southerners one and all, use the trip to reminisce about the past, to contemplate the accomplishments and regrets of their lives, and to offer sympathy and support for each other.
Better-than-average Baby-Boomer women's fiction, with strong characters and strong writing. Be warned that the others in my bookgroup complained about the way in which the story abruptly jumps from character to character and from the past to the present.