Word: reunioner
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...Class Reunion, Jaffe...
...Class Reunion, Jaffe...
...CLASS REUNION, Rona Jaffe's account of the lives of four Radcliffe grads from the 50s, is a swamp. As Jaffe's characters slog their way from college to 20th reunion, they get progressively muddier. Each arrived at Rona's Radcliffe as a clean, bright, stereotype--Jewish American princess Emily, WASPy golden girl Daphne, good-timing Southern gal Annabel, and studious but passionate Chris. Jaffe drags them through a mire of messy divorces, deformed kids, homosexual husbands, and personal failures. You begin to hope each traumatic life crisis will be the final quagmire, putting the poor girl...
...problems with sex in marriage, and having kids. Each also has a quirk, a flaw in her otherwise perfect Radcliffe patina. Emily is neurotic, Daphne has epilepsy, Annabel likes sex and alcohol, and Chris is obsessed with a homosexual. By the time they get back to Cambridge for their reunion, these tiny flaws have created major messes...
...Class Reunion is not the worst of the recent books on Harvard. Unlike Enrique Lopez, author of The Harvard Mystique, Jaffe has no axe to grind with Harvard. She's not wailing about the decay of the institutions of College Life, like Lansing Lamont in Campus Shock. Her stories read more smoothly than The Mem Hall Murders. In the end Harvard fares pretty well, because she uses it only for background: dropping names of buildings and alumni, reminiscing about sneaking a feel in an Eliot House room or necking on the steps of Briggs Hall. The Harvard name may sell...