THE TRUTH IS A THEORY

In Bristol’s debut novel, a group of college friends deal with the challenges of adulthood.

As the book opens, Allie Mussoni and her husband, Dana, are separating. The narrative moves between her present-day journal entries in the years 2000 and 2001, in which she tries to makes sense of the collapse of her marriage and comes to understand how her upbringing in a dysfunctional family shaped her adult relationships, and a series of historical scenes that begin in Allie’s college years and end more than a decade later. Allie, Megan Riordan, Tess Cleary, and Zoe Chapin meet as freshmen at Erikson College and share ups and downs over the years—Allie cheats on Dana during the long-distance phase of their relationship; Megan spends years dealing with the effects of date rape; and Zoe’s boyfriend, Gavin Keller, leaves her for Tess, only to continue sleeping with Zoe. They all work to balance high-powered jobs, marriages, and motherhood, and undergo emotional growth that leads to a satisfying and resonant ending. The novel is slow to start, but the pages turn more quickly as readers become invested in the well-developed, multifaceted characters, who possess flaws without being defined by them. The story, with its focus on the domestic challenges of a group of upper-middle-class, white professionals, may not appeal to all readers, but it’s a solid entry in its genre. The overwrought tone of Allie’s diary entries (“With Megan, my soul is comfortably naked; we skinny-dip through all of life's flash floods together”) can be wearing, but it’s in keeping with her characterization, and the omniscient narration elsewhere is pleasantly straightforward.

An emotionally intense novel of love and friendship.