'Commencement' novel by alum chronicles the Smith life

J. Courtney Sullivan '03 concludes the acknowledgements portion of her first novel, "Commencement," due out in June of this year, by paying credit to her Smith career. "I will be forever grateful to and in awe of Smith College. Thank you to the remarkable women I met in my time there; to the women who came before and after; and to those future Smithies who have yet to meet their destiny at the Grécourt Gates."

Many Smith alumnae authors who have come before Sullivan have paid homage to their alma mater in their acknowledgments, but Sullivan's entire novel is an ode to her years at Smith. "Commencement" follows the lives of four - imaginary - friends, who meet their first year at Smith while living in the maid's quarters of King House. Celia, Bree, Sally and April grow to be best friends, forming a bond of friendship without lines, for which many Smithies could vouch.

Sullivan follows the characters past their graduation, tracing the path each takes as they are launched beyond the Smith bubble. The women each end up in different realms in their careers - cancer research, law school, publishing and filming feminist documentaries - as well as in their post-Smith lifestyles. Sullivan accurately presents the struggles facing the modern woman: What role does feminism play in our lives? Is wanting marriage and children wrong? What about not wanting marriage and children? How radical is too radical?

Ultimately, the book is a gripping, hilariously accurate representation of Smith and a compelling discussion of the issues involved in modern-day feminism. Sullivan wrote the book based on her experiences, as is obvious to any Smith reader, but the characters and events involved, she says, are completely fictional. She decided to use the name of Smith, Northampton and even the houses, campus buildings and local businesses instead of changing the setting to any generic women's college - and the book is all the more alive for it.

Smithies will be pulled in by the familiar verbiage usually reserved only for Smith campus life. From "shower hour" to the BDOCs (Big Dykes on Campus) and the stereotypes about girls who live in the Quad versus Green Street, Sullivan documents the Smith lifestyle down to the details, with only a few variations or dramatizations. Parts will make you laugh at their accuracy, while the all-too-real discussions of sex trafficking, a rape that happens under the influence and the struggle for transgender acceptance on campus will grip your heart.

Sullivan, an English major at Smith, had not planned on writing a novel about the college, but ended up following the old "write what you know" adage. In part, she said, she was writing an update to the Mary McCarthy novel, "The Group," about a group of Vassar College alums in the 1930s. While considering this, she said, she was faced with the huge disparity between generations of women's college alumnae.

"What was on my mind when writing it was this idea that you go to college, you make these friendships, and at a women's college they are so much more intense, your lives so interwoven, you spend every day together and know every single thing that's happening.

"As a result you all are really in the same place, you're all the same age doing the same thing, but all of a sudden you graduate and shoot off in different directions at different speeds. Some are very single, some are getting married, some are moving home, some are moving across the world. Then everyone's life has changed so much, and the weird thing with female friendships is we're always comparing ourselves to one another," said Sullivan.

The most exciting part of the novel-writing process so far, says Sullivan, was receiving a phone call from Gloria Steinem. Steinem called Sullivan with a review of her book. Sullivan answered the phone completely unawares. "I was at my desk and the phone rang, I was so me, so flustered and overwhelmed", said Sullivan. Steinem, however, gave her a positive review.

"Take Mary McCarthy's 'The Group,' add a new feminist generation striving to understand everything from themselves and their mothers to the notion of masculinity that fuels sex trafficking, and you get this generous-hearted, brave first novel. 'Commencement' makes clear that the feminist revolution is just beginning," said Steinem.

Sullivan lives in Brooklyn, NY, working in The New York Times editorial department as a research assistant to columnist Bob Herbert, and freelance writing for several publications. She is already at work on her next project, co-editing an anthology about the new generation of young women and feminism with Courtney E. Martin.

You can pre-order "Commencement" at www.jcourtneysullivan.com.