Losing It

May 23, 2016
In this charming second novel from the author of The Patterns of Paper Monsters, a frustrated 26-year-old virgin relocates to Durham, N.C., for a summer in a last ditch effort to lose her virginity. After moving in with her eccentric, spinsterish aunt Viv, Julia Greenfield takes on a menial clerical job at a law firm, where she meets and develops a fast crush on lawyer Elliot. The reader soon gleans what Julia learns only later: Elliot is less available than he seems, Aunt Viv has her own relationship issues, and Julia’s taste in men hints that she suffers from a kind of romantic amnesia. These tensions are brought to a predictable but enjoyable climax, in which Julia complicates her relationships with Elliot and Aunt Viv. Deeper than it lets on, the book’s distinct delight is the nimble dance its author plays with the somewhat frivolous conceit, embracing its pulpiness to entertain, and pushing it to surprising places.

May 1, 2016
Will someone help this poor young woman with her virginity? Despite being reasonably attractive and chalking up a few near misses, Julia Greenfield has reached the age of 26 without having sex. Now it's all she can think about. "Untouched. Like a flower suffocating in its own air. Like something pickling in its own juices. Something that badly needs to be turned inside out, banged right." Her obsession with this issue is magnified by the fact that she's lost the focus once provided by her nearly-but-not-quite Olympic swimming career. Since she hates her job, there's nothing to keep her in the D.C. suburb where she's moved after college, but she can't go home because her parents have rented out their house and gone to Costa Rica. So she ends up spending the summer with her dowager Aunt Vivienne in North Carolina. Terrifyingly, Viv turns out to be a virgin, too, and the dull small town she lives in looks like part of the problem. Nonetheless, Julia forges gamely on. A contributor to the New Yorker's "Shouts and Murmurs" humor column, Rathbone (The Patterns of Paper Monsters, 2010) reliably wrings the humor out of this situation, but more impressively, she manages to evoke its poignancy. Julia's longing is revealed in moments like this, watching a friend with her boyfriend: "he put his hand on her chest, kind of fit his fingers above her collarbone as if it was a ridge on a rock face and he was going to climb her. I'd thought about that for a long time." Also nuanced is the uncomfortable relationship between aunt and niece, in which both withhold more than they give. Amusing but also smart about people and unexpectedly sweet.

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July 1, 2016

Without quite knowing how it happened, 26-year-old Julia Greenfield has ended up living in a city far away from her friends and family, stuck in an uninteresting job, and feeling essentially unhappy with herself. Somewhere in the past, something went wrong and she attributes it to still being a virgin. With a full life reevaluation in mind, Julia relocates to Durham, NC, moving in with her maiden Aunt Viv for the summer. Julia is determined to find someone to date. Soon she is tangled up in romantic daydreams of men in whom she has the barest interest, only to discover their many faults during some excruciatingly bad dates. This spurs Julia on to examine the positives and negatives of all the relationships in her life and gives her a more complete view of those around her and mostly herself. VERDICT Rathbone (The Patterns of Paper Monsters) has created a sweetly comical yet realistic coming-of-age story with genuine characters and convincing awkward situations. [See Prepub Alert, 2/1/16.]--Joy Gunn, Paseo Verde Lib., Henderson, NV

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