Bennington Girls Are Easy

May 18, 2015
Silver’s novel is about a pair of irresponsible Bennington grads as they navigate their 20s back home in Boston and New York City. Cassandra Puffin—who likes her men “upperclass and intellectual, with a fine, sadistic verbal edge”—and her bestie, the charismatic, selfish, and prescient Sylvie Furst, graduated Bennington in 2003 lacking any ambition other than Sylvie’s intense desire to move to NYC. She accomplishes her goal by using another Bennington grad, only to suffer the consequences of her choice later. Cassandra stays in Boston for some time, but moves into Sylvie’s Brooklyn apartment several years later. They go through their days working odd jobs, and Sylvie more readily adapts because of her entrepreneurial bent. Sadly, as the 2008 financial crisis hits, Cassandra does not, creating an interesting dynamic between the two. The book’s pace is too slow, and the reader can never really reconcile the fact that Cassandra and Sylvie don’t really seem to like each other much, but Silver (Summer Invitation) excels at characterization and deftly blends tragedy and comedy.

May 1, 2015
Silver (The Summer Invitation, 2014, etc.) tracks the friendship of two college grads attempting to make it in New York. Why attend Bennington, an elite college in Vermont? "To have something interesting to talk about at cocktail parties on Fifth Avenue," thinks Pansy Chapin, a moneyed graduate and one of this novel's minor characters. She's being facetious, but this comment retains a grain of truth as Silver taps into the particular insular culture that stays with the school's graduates-especially best friends Sylvie Furst and Cassandra Puffin-once they leave. Sylvie, who moves to New York almost immediately, is a self-starter with dreams of her own line of artisanal foods, while Cassandra is assured but unfocused, falling into a administrative job and running through a string of luxuriously rich Harvard boyfriends. After a failed relationship, Cassandra moves into Sylvie's Fort Greene apartment, and at first their life in the city is exciting as they navigate New York's Bennington social scene. But the friendship begins to fracture as the two clash on work ethics, views on monogamy, and money. It seems the real world is tearing them apart. There are snippy arguments, then dramatic blowouts-and, when the girls are no longer speaking, a chance meeting years later that shows how starkly New York has changed them both. It's unclear whether their relationship will ever restart. Silver has written a fun read with lots of snarky humor (Sylvie worries about becoming trapped in a "gray crust of sexlessness"; the girls talk about former classmates: "And anyway, she's the heiress to the coffee-cake fortune! She could afford to keep the baby"). Although she successfully captures a postgrad subculture, Silver maintains too much narrative distance from her characters. She comments on Cassandra's and Sylvie's superficial foibles but never plumbs their full emotional depths; in a relationship-based novel, this may leave readers dissatisfied. A caustically witty novel but one that rarely interrupts its superficiality to deliver a deeper meaning.

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June 15, 2015

Sylvie Furst and Cassandra Puffin were convinced they were friends for life. Having gone to the same arts school in Boston, then attending Bennington, an exclusive liberal arts college, the young women feel unsatisfied and disgruntled to be back in their hometown. First Sylvie then Cassandra move to New York City to fulfill their dreams of adventurous living. Partying with other Bennington grads, indulging in overpriced cocktails, going to sample sales, and having sex with whomever they desire occupies the majority of their young lives. But as the months, then years, pass, with Sylvie barely surviving off a variety of miscellaneous jobs, her bitterness grows. She's unable to see her own flaws and how she continually takes monetary advantage of Cassandra, and the rift between the women expands. VERDICT After a memoir (Charlotte au Chocolat) and a YA novel (The Summer Invitation), Silver presents a clever view of the emotional development of two entitled young women as they progress from a cruel cynicism to recanting their outlooks and understanding more about adult life.--Joy Gunn, Paseo Verde Lib., Henderson, NV

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
Sylvie and Cassandra are as about as bohemian and entitled as you would expect two graduates of Bennington College (known for putting the liberal in liberal arts) could beexcept that Sylvie isn't from a wealthy family and so doesn't come by her entitlement naturally. The friends embark on their real lives after graduation, and head to New York City, where they suffer through any odd job they can get while in pursuit of . . . what, exactly? A suitable husband, an interesting way to make money, a reason to exist? This sounds like it could be chick lit, but it's notthe setting is hipster Brooklyn, not Manhattan, and there is nary a designer shoe in sight. Sylvie spends her time wiping children's bottoms at her nanny job while Cassandra runs through a series of boyfriends and bemoans the group's changing friendships. This might be a hard sell to readers who still enjoy classic single in the big city chick lit, but it's a good bet for millennials and fans of HBO's Girls.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)