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Commencement A novel J Courtney Sullivan 9780307270740 Books

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Commencement A novel J Courtney Sullivan 9780307270740 Books

I always enjoy books about college friendships so I was predisposed to like this one. And like it I did, though it had a few distracting flaws. Four girls from very different backgrounds find themselves living together their freshman year at Smith, the prestigious Seven Sisters school in Massachusetts. Having been to a co-ed University in the South, I was surprised at some of the revelations about all girls' schools, but if a purpose of reading is to expand our horizons, consider mine expanded.

The book is told in alternating chapters by each of the four girls: Celia, the energetic organizer from a close-knit family whose goal is to be a novelist living in New York City; Bree, the Southern belle engaged to her high school sweetheart who falls easily into an alternative relationship; Sally, the heartbroken girl who has just lost her mother shortly before starting college; and April, the liberated woman intent on righting the wrongs of a male-dominated society. They come together and share their emotional lives, their hopes and aspirations. Very little, if any, emphasis is put on academics, and I often wondered if any of them ever attended classes. Considering they were in pre-med, pre-law, and other demanding curriculums, I found their lack of study time or even mention of academics unusual. However, I think the author was much more intent on showing the strength of friendship and how it can survive anything if the friendship is true.

The action in the book begins four years post-graduation when the first of the group is getting married. As the bridesmaids converge on the wedding site, the reader is treated to numerous flashbacks and gets a clear picture of their backgrounds. How the friendships survive, the stumbling blocks that are overcome, the tragedy they share, and the author's very fluid style all make for a good, if not great, story.

I did find her second book, MAINE, more appealing and polished, though they both share a very peculiar trait: extremely abrupt endings which leave the reader wondering where the epilogue is.


Tags : Commencement: A novel [J. Courtney Sullivan] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 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,J. Courtney Sullivan,Commencement: A novel,Knopf,0307270742,Female friendship;Fiction.,Women college students;Fiction.,Young women;United States;Social conditions;Fiction.,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,Female friendship,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction Literary,Literary,Social conditions,United States,Women college students,Young women

Commencement A novel J Courtney Sullivan 9780307270740 Books Reviews

Commencement tells the story of four young women--Bree, Celia, April and Sally--who meet in their freshman dorm at Smith College. The four women are from different backgrounds and have different dreams, but their experience at Smith draws them together into what they believe will be a life long friendship. After graduation, the four women move in their separate ways, vowing to stay close. Soon the different paths of their lives will challenge their friendship, and one critical choice will threaten to tear them all apart.

Commencement was the second novel that I have read by J. Courtney Sullivan (I read her novel Maine first) and I have to say, I'm glad I read Maine first, because after Commencement, I'm not sure I would have given her a second chance. There wasn't anything horrible about the novel, but the first half of it really dragged for me and it took me a very long time to get interested in the story. And then once the story got interesting, it seemed to start taking turns that got progressively less believable. The novel is well written, but maybe I'm not familiar enough with the culture and lifestyle of Smith College and its graduates to fully appreciate its charms.
This will be short, because if not, I could go on forever about this book.

The CHOICES are very different for these 21st-century "Smithies" - gay or straight lifestyle, too many opportunities and not too few, whether to espouse the practice any religion AT ALL or embrace the agnostic modernity, to have children or not - but the WOMEN are the same, thank goodness.

And of course, some of the characters were not well developed - but they are all under 27, how well developed were YOU as a character at that age? But I found myself and my class- mates in each of these 4 women, parts of myself in all 4, and I admired them all - they respected themselves, and each other, and what's worth-while in life, and they evidently studied hard - all 4 graduated Phi Bete - and, what's more, they kept on trying to forge lives that were particularly THEIRS.

I agree that this novel would have lost its appeal with any other place as the setting, but that's totally missing the point - the Smith experience, and the friends you make there, shape you into who you are as an adult, and that's what this book is about. I could not put it down, and I am still thinking about all the ties that bind the 2002 grads to those of the early 1960s, now IN their 60s.

Thanks to J. Courtney Sullivan for giving me yet one more good reason to be proud of my Alma Mater - and April, Sally, Celia and Bree (and Lara!), keep up the good work! This is my first, and may be my LAST, review, I'm generally too busy for this kind of thing, but this book was worth it!
This is a great book about college life and the strange and powerful bonds of friendship that form during those years. There were so many scenes that rang true when I compared them to my own college friendships. Do not be deceived by the cover and the subject matter. This is not a "light" read or a "beach read." (I dislike the term beach read because I think it minimizes women's literature, but that's a story for another day. This book is intense and challenges our preconceptions about several issues. I highly recommend it to anyone who is nostalgic for their college days.
As a Mawrter myself, I was overcome with sentiment by Sullivan's portrait of her four Smithies. It reminded me of all the ways in which my college experience inextricably bound me to my fellow Bryn Mawr girls, bonds forged in the basement of Guild at 2 AM or editing a paper over some Smiley fries and a pint of Ben & Jerry's in Uncommon Grounds. There are hallmarks of a women's college education, a specific pitch, particular shared experiences that Sullivan gets just right because she has lived it. The only thing that keeps me from giving <i> Commencement </i> the full five-star endorsement is the abruptness (and disappointing lack of genuinely satisfying resolution) in its ending.
I always enjoy books about college friendships so I was predisposed to like this one. And like it I did, though it had a few distracting flaws. Four girls from very different backgrounds find themselves living together their freshman year at Smith, the prestigious Seven Sisters school in Massachusetts. Having been to a co-ed University in the South, I was surprised at some of the revelations about all girls' schools, but if a purpose of reading is to expand our horizons, consider mine expanded.

The book is told in alternating chapters by each of the four girls Celia, the energetic organizer from a close-knit family whose goal is to be a novelist living in New York City; Bree, the Southern belle engaged to her high school sweetheart who falls easily into an alternative relationship; Sally, the heartbroken girl who has just lost her mother shortly before starting college; and April, the liberated woman intent on righting the wrongs of a male-dominated society. They come together and share their emotional lives, their hopes and aspirations. Very little, if any, emphasis is put on academics, and I often wondered if any of them ever attended classes. Considering they were in pre-med, pre-law, and other demanding curriculums, I found their lack of study time or even mention of academics unusual. However, I think the author was much more intent on showing the strength of friendship and how it can survive anything if the friendship is true.

The action in the book begins four years post-graduation when the first of the group is getting married. As the bridesmaids converge on the wedding site, the reader is treated to numerous flashbacks and gets a clear picture of their backgrounds. How the friendships survive, the stumbling blocks that are overcome, the tragedy they share, and the author's very fluid style all make for a good, if not great, story.

I did find her second book, MAINE, more appealing and polished, though they both share a very peculiar trait extremely abrupt endings which leave the reader wondering where the epilogue is.