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Normally, if we were to recommend a coming-of-age novel, we’d suggest simply re-reading The Catcher in the Rye. But have you heard that sociologists have coined a new phrase to describe the life phase of today’s 20-somethings? They’re calling it “emerging adulthood,” but that’s just a fancy name for a sudden clingy dependence and listlessness. Holden Caulfield’s acerbic rebellion won’t cut it anymore. We need a contemporary bildungsroman where 22-year-olds wander aimlessly while still on the leash of their parents’ purse strings.
Finny, a new novel by Justin Kramon, a recent spawn of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, might shed light on this new Zeitgeist. It tracks a 14-year-old girl’s rambling journey to age 34. She tries to escape home life — complete with neurotic parents and a dog named for Dostoyevsky’s Raskolnikov — and is sent to boarding school, where a cast of eccentric characters complicates her zigzags toward maturity.
Sun., Sept. 12, 6 p.m., 2010
