Modern Lovers

Modern Lovers
Emma Straub
Riverhead Books (May 31, 2016), 366 pages
Kindle edition $7.99, Amazon paperback $11.31

I find “college friends” novels hard to resist so I bought this one. It was actually quite engaging.

Elizabeth, Andrew, Zoe, and Lydia had a band in college, for which Elizabeth wrote many of the songs. Lydia was the face of the band, but met with an untimely death.

When the novel takes place Elizabeth and Andrew are married and living in Brooklyn. Elizabeth is a real estate agent. Andrew is living off of his family’s money. Harry is a high school senior trying to figure out college.

Zoe lives a couple of blocks away and is married to her lover Jane. The two women own a restaurant and have a daughter named Ruby who is a year older than Harry and did not get in to any of the colleges to which she applied. The novel is about the interactions among these people and the crises that they encounter. Lydia is very much present in the book, even though she is long departed.

I think I’ll leave it there. If you enjoy the college buddy ensemble genre this one is well worth reading.