Bennington Girls Are Easy

Bennington Girls Are Easy by Charlotte Silver is about two best friends, and their wider circle of college friends, navigating post-college life in the city.

Would definitely recommend — I read it in two sittings, and I only stopped because APPARENTLY my husband wants to spend time with me or something — but don’t expect a cheery adventure about college girlfriends making in the big city, though. That NetGalley blurb (which is now the jacket blurb) is a bit misleading. Instead, this novel is a blunt and somewhat dark look at sex, money, social class, and the evolution of college friendships in adulthood.

I love lifestyle porn novels and manners novels, and I love struggling-friends-in-the-city chicklit (I love it so much I should make it a category here), but I get extremely annoyed when they touch. The common I gotta find a job — any job! character motivation does not work for characters who live in a massive apartment in a doorman building, and it just makes me wonder if the author’s ever been to Manhattan or looked for a job.  Bennington Girls Are Easy does not make me wonder if the author’s ever been to Manhattan. No, I’m convinced that all of these characters are real people who are going to sue the author for revealing all of their private and unflattering moments.