A novel which Adam Gopnik said is "The Big Chill" for the Facebook generation and he is right.
The 1989 classes of Harvard and Radcliffe gather for their 20th reunion. Wry, funny, predictable, full of restless, intelligent, self-absorbed characters and borrowing heavily from The Big Chill themes, it is fun to read, well-written...alternately romantic and somewhat real. The children (inexplicably) accompany their parents and some of the best parts concern their antics and interactions.
At random:
"Kant (with whom Jane felt an instantaneous and long-lasting affinity) believe in complete moral virtue as a prerequisite to happiness....Wittgenstein was more concerned with the impossibility of defining the word happiness in a subjective world while experiencing it in a temporal one....'I loved that class,' says Jane, catching another glimpse of ecstatically bouncing Sophie, wondering whether, outside the boundaries of moon bounces and sex, people are ever capable of living solely in the moment."
"Mia's son Eli is still focused on his numbers. 'Okay, so that's five of us, Jane and Sophie, three Griswolds, one Clover, and maybe an extra, right? That makes twelve.' Eli steals a glance at the bowl full of unadorned batter sitting next to the empty griddle.' Wait, What about the bananas and chocolate chips?'
'Got 'em!' says Jonathan, bursting through the door, a charismatic blur of sweat and spent energy hovering above a pair of brand-new Nike Roadsters. Under one arm he clutches a perfect bunch of bananas, stickered over with the word ORGANIC; with the other he holds aloft what looks like a dark brown brick. 'Can you believe it? They had Scharffen Berger at your little local deli! I can't even get our local deli to stock Nestle's.'"
So, not Anna Karenina but not Danielle Steele either....
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