Bookends

Bookends, Jane Green’s third comic novel of contemporary love and lust, proves beyond a doubt that when it comes to light reading, plot is everything. Bookends makes a great case study because it has little going for it besides plot. Dialogue? Stilted. Characters? Clichéd. Writing style? Sloppy. And yet the book is well-nigh impossible to put down. A few friends meet at university: Simon, the chirpy gay character; Portia, the glamour girl; Josh, the adorable, unpretentious catch; and Cath, the overweight, insecure narrator. Portia strays from their crowd, but the other three remain friends into their 30s. Now successful Londoners, each faces a personal crisis: singleton Cath leaves a secure job to start a bookstore; Simon looks for love; Josh’s marriage goes through growing pains. And then Portia, as intimidating and elegant as ever, wanders back into their lives–with surprising results. Green is a past master of the ugly-duckling-turned-swan story. Cath’s transformation–neatly echoed by the changes in the lives of her friends–is completely addictive. Plot does indeed rule. –Claire Dederer