It is the summer of 1971 and girls from different parts of
world are winging their way to Europe for a little culture
and high hopes. Yet, there was little to raise Vivien
Wahl's spirits when she first arrived in Switzerland. Even
if it was an elite summer school with students from
everywhere, she felt it was less like an opportunity for
fun than for a chance to have her parents get rid of her
for the summer.
For her part, the graceful and lovely Shirin Firouz, was
not only treated like a princess at home, she was a real
princess from an elite Iranian Royal family connected to
the Shah himself. Why now was she here in this hovel of a
room and how could she deal with that obnoxious girl,
Ingrid?
Despite coming from a small town in northern Ontario and
German parents, Ingrid Baum is determined to make whoopee
and blow the image of the polite Canadian to hell and
back. With her love of Jimi Hendrix and snappy comeback
lines, Ingrid is ready to be the most wild and wicked in
the school!
Now forced to share a small awkward room in their first
summer at The Pierpont Boarding School for Girls, how could
these three wealthy and worldly ninth graders find
something in common? Could they ever connect? Could they
ever be able to be true friends and trust each other with
their private fears and the pain of the family secrets
covered over by their pert smiles?
Cristina Garcia is a strong writer and provides an
interesting and unique look at the lives of these three
girls, starting in the summer of 1971. With her talent for
writing, Garcia develops an authentic sense of the reality
of this transitional time in the early 1970s with its
feminist independence, sexual freedom (or not) and the
political influences that prevailed. Against this
backdrop, the girls' stories are interlaced and connected
in varying ways with the stories of their parents and the
influences from their youth, especially during World War
II. One of the best features of the book is Garcia's
adeptness in developing how they grew and changed their
perspective on their family members over the three year
period. The dialogue between the characters is realistic
and humorous. A great read for both older teens and adults!
Brought together each summer at a boarding school in
Switzerland, three girls learn a lot more than just French
and European culture. Shirin, an Iranian princess; Ingrid, a
German-Canadian eccentric; and Vivien, a Cuban-Jewish New
Yorker culinary phenom, are thrown into eachother's lives
when they become roommates. This is a story of 3 paths
slowly beginning to cross and merge as they spend the year
apart, but the summers together. Through navigating the
social-cultural shoals of the school, developing their
adolescence, and learning the confusing and conflicting
legacies of their families' past, Shirin, Ingrid, and Vivien
form an unbreakable bond. Like The Sisterhood of the
Traveling Pants, this story takes readers on a journey into
the lives of very different girls and the bonds that keep
them friends.
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