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.From
the Hardcover edition.
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