Synopses & Reviews
An inventive debut that recalls the imagination of Aimee Bender and the sardonic wit of Lorrie Moore.
The interlocking stories in The Kissing List feature an unforgettable group of young women – Sylvie, Anna, Frances, Maureen – as their lives connect, first during a year abroad at Oxford, then later as they move to New York on the cusp of adulthood. We follow each of them as they navigate the treachery of first dates, temp jobs and roommates, failed relationships and unexpected affairs – all the things that make their lives seem full of possibility, but also rife with potential disappointment.
Shot through with laugh-out-loud lines, yet still wrenchingly emotional and resonant, The Kissing List is a book about women who bravely defy expectations and take outrageous chances in the face of a life that might turn out to be anything less than extraordinary.
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
After a post-college year abroad at Oxford, Sylvie moves to New York City to begin a life full of possibility. From new jobs to new friends to new kissing partners, her future is hers to create. But each exciting life she envisions is inevitably shadowed with potential disappointment: the stultifying temp job, the disastrous first date, the surprising and heartbreaking loss of friends, lovers, and roommates. In a modern world that is incresingly unforgiving, Sylvie and the friends she meets along the way test how far they will go to carve out unique and brilliant adult lives for themselves.
About the Author
STEPHANIE REENTS's fiction has been included in the
O. Henry Prize Stories,
noted in Best American Short Stories, and has appeared in numerous journals.
Stephanie has been a Bread Loaf Conference Scholar, a Stegner Fellow, and a
Rhodes Scholar. She is an assistant professor at the College of the Holy Cross in
Worcester, Massachusetts.
From the Hardcover edition.