Published June 16, 2009
About the Book:
A sparkling debut novel: a tender story of friendship, a witty take on liberal arts colleges, and a fascinating portrait of the first generation of women who have all the opportunities in the world, but no clear idea about what to choose.
Assigned to the same dorm their first year at Smith College, Celia, Bree, Sally, and April couldn’t have less in common. Celia, a lapsed Catholic, arrives with her grandmother’s rosary beads in hand and a bottle of vodka in her suitcase; beautiful Bree pines for the fiancé she left behind in Savannah; Sally, pristinely dressed in Lilly Pulitzer, is reeling from the loss of her mother; and April, a radical, redheaded feminist wearing a “Riot: Don’t Diet” T-shirt, wants a room transfer immediately.
Together they experience the ecstatic highs and painful lows of early adulthood: Celia’s trust in men is demolished in one terrible evening, Bree falls in love with someone she could never bring home to her traditional family, Sally seeks solace in her English professor, and April realizes that, for the first time in her life, she has friends she can actually confide in.
When they reunite for Sally’s wedding four years after graduation, their friendships have changed, but they remain fiercely devoted to one another. Schooled in the ideals of feminism, they have to figure out how it applies to their real lives in matters of love, work, family, and sex. For Celia, Bree, and Sally, this means grappling with one-night stands, maiden names, and parental disapproval—along with occasional loneliness and heartbreak. But for April, whose activism has become her life’s work, it means something far more dangerous.
Written with radiant style and a wicked sense of humor, Commencement not only captures the intensity of college friendships and first loves, but also explores with great candor the complicated and contradictory landscape facing young women today.
My Thoughts:
Didn't love it; didn't hate it. I did for sure disagree with the comparisons made to Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, though. It's a book I happen to love that is far better than this book. On this one, the writing isn't bad, but I really only enjoyed the first half of the book. The ending was especially lacking as it left much unfinished. The big mystery/dramatic turn of events was something I figured out immediately upon the story line even beginning, so I spent a long time just waiting for Sullivan to finally reveal it. Also, the book is a bit pretentious. It reads like chick lit that is trying to be highbrow or something. All that being said, Sullivan can write. There were sections of the book that were great, especially the first half when the four main characters are in college. She lived that part of the book herself in a sense as a Smith alum herself, so that is likely why that half of the book was much better. I just couldn't figure out the point of the book maybe. In ways, it is about feminism and all of the options women have available to them today, yet her characters are so stereotypical, predictable, and one-dimensional. For a book with so much about feminism, I think she really sells the women of her book short (the main characters and all of the supporting ones, some are bordering on offensive descriptions even). Despite the issues I found with this book, I would give this author another chance and read another of her books. Like I said, she can write. It may just be that her writing is not my cup of tea.
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