After reading A Gate At The Stairs, which was set in a college town obviously modelled on Madison, it was very strange and serendipitous to start reading You're Not You, which is set in the real Madison, Bascom Hill and all. I don't konw how You're Not You made it on to my list, but I'm thrilled that it did. It's the college-girl-coming-of-age novel that Lorrie Moore should have wanted to write -- no crazy, timely terrorists or hipster lingo, just an original, thoughtful story of a student growing up. The characters are unique and true without being performatively quirky, and the job that the protagonist finds herself in and forces her to grow up is, unlike the job the student holds in Moore's novel, thoroughly credible. As I think about it, the many similarities between the two novels pile up; fancy restaurants and cooking play a prominent role in both, too . . .
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