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| Girls in White Dresses |
Title: Girls in White Dresses
Author: Jennifer Close
Publication Date: 8/9/2011
Pages: 306
How I Found It: I read another Jennifer Close novel earlier this year.
Date Completed: 7/27/17
Summary: Close follows a group of college friends in their post-college years as they and those around them encounter matrimony in a variety of different ways.
What I Thought: I picked this up because I really liked Close's dark look at marriage and politics in The Hopefuls. This was really, really different from that book.
It's still looking at marriage, but from a different perspective. In a way, it's a series of short stories, each one focused on weddings in some way. However, the same characters weave in and out of the chapters, each tangentially related to our main group in some way or another.
Reading this took me back to my time post-college when I was single. Well, when I was the permanent third wheel in the relationship between my best friend and her boyfriend/fiancé. That uncertainty of your life's path, the perennial view of watching your friends pair up, the hope it will happen for you one day but also fear of the same thing. It all is well represented here.
Close focuses more on weddings than marriages here. She doesn't get as deep and dark with marriage as she does in The Hopefuls, but she does deal a lot with disillusionment here. She vacillates between positive looks at relationships and weddings and more discouraging representations. I liked that. Weddings and marriages and relationships are so different for each couple. She covers the spectrum fairly well here and it kept the book interesting.
She definitely had an interesting approach to this story. When I first realized what she was doing, I was really skeptical. However, in the end, it worked well for me. I liked that there was enough of a common thread for me to keep coming back and wanting to read. However, the stories were just disconnected enough that I could read a chapter and easily put the book down. Perfect before bed reading material. As I journey further into Close's work, I'm anxious to see what else she has in store for me.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Will I Re-Read: Probably not
Other Books By Jennifer Close: The Hopefuls
A Reduced Review: A tangentially connected collection of stories about weddings and the women who get dressed up for them.
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