"Girls in White Dresses," by Jennifer Close

“Girls in White Dresses” (Knopf, 2011), by first time novelist Jennifer Close, has many of the earmarks of a common genre: the “girlfriends” book. The novel follows a group of women friends from college days about ten years into their futures, as they move to their own apartments, get jobs, have serious or stalled careers, meet appropriate and inappropriate men, have various romances, and survive breakups; some of them get married and have children and some of them think they will never meet the right man. Throughout, they get their greatest support from each other. Although this situation is not original at all, in fiction or in life, Close gives us a smart, funny, touching but not sentimental look at these young women’s lives. Mary, Isabella, Lauren and their friends went to colleges such as Boston College, and they now mostly live in New York. They all go to a lot of wedding showers and weddings, which soon become a dreaded chore. The women are funny and snarky about these, and about men and relationships, yet they do their duty by their friends and follow the conventions of showers -- dressing up, taking the train to wherever the event is, buying and wrapping gifts, oohing and ahing at the gifts, writing down who gave what, playing silly games, eating little sandwiches and sipping mimosas -- and of weddings, even if they are rolling their eyes when no one else is looking. The author is very good at the telling details about these women’s lives, and she shows how the friends sustain and entertain each other; this strikes me as quite authentic. Some of the minor characters are perhaps too much “types” rather than realistic, but the main characters are well depicted, and although at times they can be annoying to each other and to the reader, we can’t help feeling affectionate toward them and cheering them on. The stories are told in chapters that could stand alone, but all fit together. Some fit together less than others, feeling a little shoehorned into the narrative, but overall the structure works, and this novel is enjoyable to read.