Books & Poetry

The agonies of adolescence and the baffling hierarchies of cool have been prime novel-fodder since teenagers were invented. Curtis Sittenfeld scored both a critical hit and a top-ten bestseller in the US with her debut ‘Prep’, which focused on just these concerns. This follow-up stays in similar territory as it follows pained introvert and bashful would-be girlfriend Hannah Gavener through her late adolescence and twenties. While her observations on youth remain razor-sharp – she is particularly incisive about teenagers’ endless ability to self-mythologise; to imagine themselves remembering events they are still experiencing – Sittenfeld takes her empathetic examination of loners a step further with Hannah. Indeed, the chief pleasure for the reader here is simply watching her develop over the course of 15 years, slowly reaching the realisation that, at heart, no one ever feels like they fit in. Or as Hannah puts it: ‘You deal with what you can and hope that the rest will pass.’

From her struggle to understand her parents’ bitter divorce to her horror at the freedoms afforded her at college – and total inability to take advantage of them: she quickly realises it’s far less stressful to go to bed at 7pm than to try and pull frat boys with unreliable girlie cliques – Hannah is an endearing and almost painfully well-realised heroine. Her faith in the fact that The One is just out there waiting for her is epic in the light of the avalanche of tortuous situations in which she seems to find herself. Other characters, such as her initially objectionable cousin Fig and well-meaning sister Allison, are also wincingly credible.As a result, ‘The Man of My Dreams’ avoids being either a tedious coming-of-age mawk-fest or a stodgy, Pilcher-esque family saga. Sittenfeld’s prose, which has that elusive ability to seduce you without you ever noticing The Writing, is a joy to read, and her characters a joy to spend time with, even if, occasionally, they may prefer to be alone.