A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff (21)

Joanna Smith Rakoff wrote A Fortunate Age about a very detailed and specific subculture - Jewish, liberal, upper middle class, city dwelling Gen X-ers. The main characters are five liberal arts Oberlin grads. The book dips into their personal narratives as they go to grad school, make it big, make it nowhere, marry, breed, and halfheartedly try to remain friends in the decade after their undergrad days together.

I'm from a slightly different subculture. I lived a pretty homogeneous life until public high school, when I encountered and befriended people from different classes, religions, political parties. I remember hearing about the dot com boom, but I was really just thinking about Sailor Moon at the time. Because I and my closest friends are still childless and not quite 30, I think I'm missing something in Rakoff's novel.

The timing and style of the book are interesting in a jumbled way. Each character tells a bit of the story from a half stream of consciousness, half omniscient third person point of view. The reader experiences memories in the middle of action. Sometimes just as you get involved in a character's life, the chapter ends, and you're moved on to less sympathetic person. But it's like life. We narrate our own lives, judge our friends from our view, and hear mutual friends' theories on each other.

It's a serious and complicated novel about relationships and personal struggles. It's the post adolescent coming of age - which seems like how coming of age comes now a days.