Just Jennifer

Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann (Spiegel & Grau, May 25, 2010)

A first novel, Anthropology of an American Girl was originally self-published in 2003.  The novel begins in the fall of 1979, Eveline and Kate’s senior year in a Long Island High School and details the next five years, focusing on the narrator, Eveline, as the girls finish high school, and then follows Eveline to NYU and a new life in Manhattan.  As the story begins, Kate’s mother has just died and she now must re-imagine her life without her parents.  Eveline also feels the loss of Madame but now feels responsible to shepherd Kate through the next part of her life.  Eveline is a careful, meticulous observer who many times detaches herself from a situation in an attempt to make sense of what is going on, yet underneath there is a certain fragility to her, and she often allows events to happen to her rather than taking control of things.  A study of a young woman coming of age, Anthropology of an American Girl, while very detailed, is compulsively readable.