Commencement

by J. Courtney Sullivan

This formulaic women’s novel is about four friends who meet during their freshman year at Smith:

• April is the radical who isn’t a lesbian, but wants nothing to do with men;
• Bree is the beautiful southern belle who’s experimenting sexually;
• Sally is the girl whose mother just died and seems just a little lost; and
• Celia is the party girl and the person who keeps the group together.

After graduation, life gets more interesting and complicated for the girls, though their friendship sustains them.

For a novel that got such good reviews, it is shockingly predictable.


5/7/10