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Overview
At what point does childhood end and adulthood begin? Mandy Berman’s evocative debut novel captures, through the lens of summer camp both the thrill and pain of growing up.
Rachel Rivkin and Fiona Larkin used to treasure their summers together as campers at Camp Marigold. Now, reunited as counselors after their first year of college, their relationship is more complicated. Rebellious Rachel, a street-smart city kid raised by a single mother, has been losing patience with her best friend’s insecurities; Fiona, the middle child of a not-so-perfect suburban family, envies Rachel’s popularity with their campers and fellow counselors. For the first time, the two friends start keeping secrets from each other. Through them, as well as from the perspectives of their fellow counselors, their campers, and their mothers, we witness the tensions of the turbulent summer build to a tragic event, which forces Rachel and Fiona to confront their pasts—and the adults they’re becoming.
A seductive blast of nostalgia, a striking portrait of adolescent longing, and a tribute to both the complicated nature and the enduring power of female friendship, Perennials will speak to everyone who still remembers that bittersweet moment when innocence is lost forever.
Advance praise for Perennials
“Mandy Berman has remade the American summer camp narrative, ditching the usual clichés and getting in close with her characters and their various states of emotional and economic precariousness. Perennials is a sharp, crushingly observant, and empathetic debut, full of wit and tragedy, and good for all seasons.”—Sam Lipsyte, author of The Fun Parts and The Ask
“Mandy Berman explores an old trope: the magic of summer camp, a place separate from the rest of your life where you can become a slightly different version of yourself, a place where friendships run impossibly deep and romance and sex are innocent. But what happens when that divide begins to crumble, and real life, in all its moral ambiguity, finds its way to the heart of a halcyon summer? Lucid, psychologically nuanced, and great fun to read, Perennials has taken an old subject and made it new.”—Rufi Thorpe, author of Dear Fang, With Love and The Girls from Corona del Mar
“Snappy and irresistible, Perennials takes readers back to summer camp, where her characters’ first friendships and treasons play out in sharp dialogue and playful, generous prose. Berman fearlessly renders youth and adulthood alike, in sentences you’ll want to savor.”—Kristopher Jansma, author of Why We Came to the City
“Do you remember that youthful summer when ‘everything changed’? Mandy Berman sure does, and her wonderful novel is a snapshot of that time and the group of young women who are irrevocably changed by it. Perennials manages to be warm and loving and still wallop you with moments of shock and pain. What an exciting debut.”—Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine and The Changeling
“Berman’s debut, a winning, keenly observed, and clear-eyed novel set in a summer camp, captures the age when fierce attachments forged over years begin to unravel, passionate female friendships give way to sex, and identity seems to shift with the tides.”—Elissa Schappell, author of Blueprints for Building Better Girls
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780399589317 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Random House Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 06/06/2017 |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.70(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
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Excerpted from "Perennials"
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Copyright © 2017 Mandy Berman.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Reading Group Guide
1. One of the earliest scenes in the novel recounts Rachel getting her first period, and a conversation she has with her mother that explores her newfound responsibilities as a woman. Why do you think this anecdote is told so near the start of the book?
2. In many ways, Rachel and Fiona are opposites. A thirteen-year-old Rachel describes Fiona as “a nosy but brutally loyal girl” (p. 5), while Rachel keeps her night with Matthew a secret from her friend. Rachel is raised by her single mother, in New York City, while Fiona is from a wealthy nuclear family in Westchester. What do you make of their attraction to each other, despite their differences? What bonds them?
3. After Mark and Denise’s argument about the police station incident, Denise begins to cry, and then remembers advice from her mother: “Don’t you ever cry in front of a man. They’ll take your weakness and build themselves up with it” (p. 38). But Denise then admits that “she’d broken that oath a long time ago.” How do you think Denise’s belief that a woman shouldn’t show a man her weaknesses may have informed her relationship with Mark? How might it have informed the way she raised Rachel and what she has taught Rachel about relationships with men?
4. Marla is different from the rest of Helen’s friends, both in upbringing and personality. Helen reflects that this might be because Marla has had a less insular upbringing than Helen’s childhood friends: “Being sheltered from the bad things didn’t really bring you any more joy. It just made you dull” (p. 56). Do you think this is true? Why or why not?
5. Fiona is described as “uneasy all the time, squirming within herself” (p. 77). She is plagued with a sort of dissociation from her body, feeling like it does not belong to her. How does she compare her body to Rachel’s, Helen’s, and those of the other women in the book? Are her comparisons of herself to them purely physical, or is there something else she feels they have that she lacks?
6. After Sheera and Mikey get in trouble, she decides to tell Chad the truth about their going to the island. Why do you think she does this? Do you believe she made the right decision, considering Chad’s strong reaction?
7. After Helen finds Rachel and Yonatan in the shed, Rachel begs Helen not to tell her sister about it. Helen keeps her word. Do you think Helen should have told Fiona about finding Rachel and Yonatan in the shed? Why or why not?
8. On Visitors’ Day, Amy goes back for John’s phone to “check the thing that she never checked” (p. 155). Why do you think it was on this day, of all days, that she decided to confirm her suspicions about John’s cheating on her?
9. Mo is a virgin, though after Sheera falls off the horse and Micah is sentenced to death, Mo finally gains the courage to come on to Nell. What about the catastrophes of that day do you believe gives Mo this courage? Does being away from home have anything to do with it?
10. Nell thinks of herself as a “champion for confused girls” (p. 197). What does she mean by this? How does her relationship with Mo parallel the one Nell has with Sasha?
11. Jack resists Rachel’s advances twice, and then finally gives in to her on the third try. How do you explain Jack’s inner conflict in regard to sleeping with Rachel? What about his behavior later, during the scene in the woods? Why does he fire both Rachel and Chad?
12. Fiona is embarrassed to hear about Rachel’s firing secondhand. That night, she cries when her camper Billie sings “Eleanor Rigby” at bedtime, and later, Fiona wakes Billie up to have her sing it again. What do Fiona’s actions, and the song itself, say about her emotional state in that moment?
13. When Helen and Sarah sneak out and ride horses through the woods, Sarah confides in Helen that she and Danny Sheppard slept together. Afterward, “Helen couldn’t explain why, but she felt uneasy now about Danny, about the way he had told Sarah to keep things between them a secret” (p. 245). What is the significance of Sarah’s confession to Helen, especially in the context of this particular night?
14. The hospital chapter is told through the perspectives of Nell and Mo. Why might the author have decided to narrate this monumental scene from an outsider’s point of view?
15. Were you surprised by the book’s ending? Why or why not? What does each character take away from the final events of the book?