COMMENCEMENT (J. Courtney Sullivan)

Commencement is a complex novel about four Smith College students embarking on lives very different from what they imagined on their first day on campus.  This book has, of course, been compared to Mary McCarthy's classic, The Group, a novel that I loved when I read it years ago.  Sullivan is a Smith graduate of great talent with an exceptional eye for details.  As the novel begins, the four main characters, Sally, Bree, April, and Celia, have been assigned to live on the same corrider in King House, a residence hall at Smith.  Sally, who recently lost her mother and is coping with and emotionally absent father, is from the Boston area, as is Celia.  Sally has her sights set on medical school, while Celia is an aspiring writer who longs to live in New York and write novels.  Bree is a Southern Belle, engaged to her high school sweetheart and longing for home, while Chicago-born April is a budding feminist who eschews shaving and fashion.

At this point one would expect a reasonably typical homage to female friendship and sisterhood, but Sullivan explores the darker and often sexual side of life at Smith.  I have to admit that if I were a high school student considering attending Smith, reading this novel might make me think twice because it goes so far beyond the typical "college" experiences.  It focuses very strongly, at times, on SLUGs (Smith Lesbians Until Graduation), gender issues, and sexual experimentation, but the main focus is really the strong bond of friendship and love among the four woman during college and after graduation.  One of the most interesting threads, and one that especially makes this novel stand out from other "girlfriends" stories, is April's involvement/employment with a self-aggrandizing, radical feminist film maker who documents abuse and exploitation of women, using April callously to further her own relentless pursuit of her cause.

This is one of those books that might leave you alternately horrified, laughing, or nodding your head in agreement.  It will definitely leave you thinking, though, as you process all of the layers and levels of Sullivan's first novel.