On the Fence

I just finished reading Commencement by Courtney Sullivan and I am still not sure whether I liked it or not.  Did you ever read a book like that?  There are elements of it that I really liked and then aspects that I hated so that leaves me totally undecided.  I really need to make a pros and cons list and then leave it at that.  In the pros column, the story was tender and sweet and I enjoyed reading about the close friendship between the four female characters.  I have a few really close girlfriends and I could relate to the bond that the four held.  The book starts out really strong and uses effective flashbacks to build the story.  However, it loses steam about a quarter of the way in and then drags until the ending.  This left me loving the beginning and ending and hating the middle!  Back to the positive qualities of the book, the female characters are well-developed and interesting.  I liked how each character tells a different chapter of the novel and I felt like this allowed each of their voices to be heard.  I enjoyed the differences in the women's personalities, from sweet and naive Sally to tough-as-nails April.  I also felt like the book enabled me to see into the culture of a women's college and experience some of the traditions of a one-sex college.  Now, onto the negative elements.  I thought the book went overboard on the coverage of feminism and I was bored by the barrage of feminist discussions between the characters.  I also could not get past the lesbian relationship between Bree and Lara and despised reading about their love life.  I don't know much about Smith College but I think the book would offend graduates of the school by making light of the achievements of the graduates.  So, having written some of my likes and dislikes of Commencement, I am left where I started...on the fence.  I hope some of you will read it and leave a comment so I can see what you think!  In other news, I just saw that my VERY favorite author, Adriana Trigiani, has the next book out in her series.  I rarely spend money on books and prefer to support my local library, but his is one that I am going to have to buy.