Serious Girls Book

Sixteen year old girls contemplating the meaning of life anchor Swann's debut. Out of context, it seems as though this would be a rather twee sort of story, full of slumber parties, kiss-and-tells, and phrasing so out of date it takes on a humorous quality. Fortunately, that's not the case.

Maya and Roe, two outsiders at a boarding school, connect nearly immediately upon meeting. The girls share everything, as 16 year olds should. And, in that way that precocious girls possess, Maya and Roe question each other: "What makes a person a person?" "When does life begin?" The two then set about to collect as much life experience as possible. This leads Maya to New York City and a man twice her age; Roe finds herself falling in love with a teenager that beats her.

The story centers around the two girls and other characters are kept at an austere minimum--the teacher is as teachers tend to be, Roe's father is as sixteen year old girls' fathers tend to be, Maya's rich grandmother is what you think rich grandmothers should be. This works for this novel because Maya and Roe are so richly illustrated--there is no need to waste words on describing how pedantic the teacher is, how father-knows-best the widower father is, or how sumptuously outfitted the grandmother is. Swann forces you to think for yourself, hedging the poignancy of the novel by eliminating the superfluous.

With little reference to the modern world--no cell phones, no computers, no "Roe listened to her iPod while waiting for Jesse to call"--the story takes on a timeless quality. It's easy to feel as if you've just been plopped down in the middle of a story, the background information there but unseen. Flies on the literary wall, you are able to focus on the pain and uncertainty of being painfully intelligent and 16 without falling to the distractions of other characters.

A quick read (on the heels of the 800+ page MacDonald novel), this novel will please those that prefer clean-edged yet somehow amorphous writing. Swann has a short, yet impressive literary résumé and is sure to join the ranks of other powerful novelists.