Dollar Daze: The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love

May 15, 2006
Things are abuzz at the Bottom Dollar Emporium, Cayboo Creek, Ga., as the girls (returning from A Dollar Short
for their third outing) find that love is in the air, despite their advanced years and protestations to the contrary. Attalee Gaines, Georgia's answer to Golden Girls
' Estelle Getty, is sparking up a storm with her main squeeze Dooley Prichard. Mavis Loomis and Birdie Murdock have both said their man-hunting days are over, as has Mrs. Tobias (her first name Gracie is rarely used). Each lady finds someone to interest her, though: in what is hardly a surprise, Mavis and Birdie find the same man, who plays them off against each other and nearly spoils their lifelong friendship. In another nonshocker, Mrs. Tobias, for all her culture, discovers she now finds "suitable" gentlemen boring and falls for a blue-collar dream boat. Meanwhile, young mother Elizabeth loses her uncle Ray, but gains husband Timothy's understanding about combining work and motherhood. As the ladies find, again unsurprisingly, that it is never too late to discover more about yourself and that no one is more important than your friends, stereotypes and caricatures give way to affecting characterizations. Literary Guild and Doubleday alternates; 7-city author tour.