Invincible Summer

April 11, 2016
Adams’s fun and memorable debut is a tale of the friendship of four British college chums. Working-class Eva falls in with a magnetic pair of siblings, rakish Lucien and artistic Sylvie. Sylvie’s trajectory to success (according to the group) seemed “inevitable” due to “a certain shine, a vividness about her... causing people to cluster around her.” And finally there is Benedict: wealthy, humble, and a talented student of physics. Upon graduation in 1997, Eva, Sylvie, and Lucien head to London, where Eva has secured a traineeship at an investment bank, while Benedict stays behind in Bristol for a Ph.D. That summer, just prior to Eva starting her adult life, Benedict invites Eva to his family’s vacation home in Greece and almost manages to make a move on her, wondering, “Did she genuinely not know how beautiful she was?” From there, the story follows the group chronologically through the years as they make choices that bring them by turns closer to and further from each other and from the dreams they’d had as students. Adams’s characters have many ups and downs, disappointments and adjustments, but they are believable due to her understated exposition of the characters’ psychologies. The reader will stick with the book, not from a real sense of jeopardy about how things will turn out, but because the characters are such good company.

A story of friendship and love, of endings and beginnings, Alice Adams's debut is a thought-provoking and engaging novel. Narrator Georgia Dolenz brings to life the personal journeys, changing times, and complicated relationships of four friends over two decades. Though Eva is the story's featured protagonist, Dolenz transitions well between the main characters--Eva, Benedict, Sylvie, and Lucien--giving each a distinctive voice and personality. Despite tackling some difficult issues, this is a lighthearted story overall, with moments that will make listeners laugh out loud. Ultimately, Dolenz helps to create characters one can't help but root for, at their worst and their best. K.S.M. � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine