On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever

Isabella, Mary and Lauren are the central 20something characters in Jennifer Close’s debut book of linked short stories, Girls in White Dresses. Despite the title lifted from the lyrics of “My Favorite Things”  — the theme of a bridal shower the friends are forced to attend — the book shouldn’t be confused with the raunchy summer flick Bridesmaids or frothy chick-lit novels. It’s smart and witty, reminscent of  works by Melissa Banks, Pam Houston, even Laurie Colwin, all of whom charted the coming-of-age of previous generations. Isabella, Lauren and Mary could well be named Lisa, Jodi and Kim.

The challenges of the post-college years remain the same as the friends deal with bad bosses, shared apartments, and relationships going nowhere. There’s a lot of drinking and talking with gal pals, moments of social awkwardness (Isabella’s ski vacation with a new guy and bunk beds), the inevitable inappropriate behavior (Lauren’s attraction to a “dirty, sexy bartender”), and the what’s-wrong-with-Mr. Right blues (Mary’s prospective mother-in-law is a control freak named Button).

All the while the friends watch their other friends march down the aisle.

” ‘Are you ever afraid that you aren’t going to meet anyone?’ Isabella asked Lauren one night. They were finishing their last drinks  at the bar, and Isabella finally asked the question she’d been thinking for a while now. She didn’t want to say it out loud. She was embarrassed that she even thought it, and waited for Lauren to lecture her about being a strong woman. Instead, Lauren finished her drink, crushed an ice cube in her teeth, and said, ‘All the time.’ ”

But even after Isabella meets Harrison, obstacles remain. Should she give up her hard-won job in publishing in New York to follow him to Boston? 

“It seemed like it all happened easier for everyone else. Look at Harrison’s friends. They just got married and had kids and didn’t seem to think about it too much. Maybe that was her problem. She was thinking about it too much. Or maybe the fact that she was thinking about it meant it wasn’t right.”

Close gets so much so right, from the many mixed emotions of becoming a “grown woman,” to the telling details of trying on one persona after another like so many dresses.  You have to laugh when one character trades in a grueling work-out class for more gentle exercise only to discover “her yoga mat smelled like feet, which got in the way of transcendence.”

Open Book: I read a digital galley of Jennifer Close’s Girls in White Dresses (Knopf), which the publisher made available through NetGalley. But I think I’m going to buy a copy for a young 20something, class of 2012.