I read about The Romantics, by Galt Niederhoffer, in the "Paperback Row" section of the NYT Book Review a couple of weeks ago. Here's what the short blurb said: "A group of friends, six years out of college, gather to celebrate a wedding and to dissect one another's successes and failures at the summer mansion of a wealthy WASP family. This novel, Niederhoffer's second, illustrates why well-wrought cynicism never goes out of style." Post-college reunion? Wedding? Cynicism? Oooh, I'm there.
Well, maybe not so fast. a girl, a stack of books, and a collection of letters wasn't a fan of this book, even though she loved Niederhoffer's first. She found it "trite", "obvious", "contrived" and "overwritten".
Marnes and Noble, on the other hand, thought that The Romantics was an accurate depiction of life among college friends, and a realistic story about how ties change after college.
And Book End Babes liked it most of all:
The novel involves a wonderful cast of friends, or used-to-be-friends, still holding on to the ties that bound them in college, as they descend on the bride’s family’s immaculate, expansive property for the weekend wedding. The entire novel takes place in a two-day time span, a feat that pays off, and works in propelling the story to its will they/won’t they conclusion. Imagine it as a great episode of 24, only without the terrorists (unless you count the cranky mom), with wonderful emotional suspense in that ticking of the clock fashion.
Niederhoffer pulls it all together beautifully, stitched to perfection like a couture wedding dress. Don’t do what I did and keep this one too long on your nightstand. Open and read immediately.
For: A well-imagined tale of friendship and messy love, as told by a realistic circle of friends you may have roomed with
A mixed bag of reviews there… But I'm intrigued. Have any EDIWTB readers read this yet?