Monday, June 03, 2024

Eight top school reunion books

Elise Juska’s new novel, Reunion, was named one of People Magazine’s “Best Books to Read in May 2024.” Her previous novels include The Blessings, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and If We Had Known. Juska’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri ReviewPloughshares, The Hudson Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize from Ploughshares, and her short fiction has been cited by The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies. She teaches creative writing at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

[The Page 69 Test: Reunion; My Book, The Movie: Reunion]

At Lit Hub Juska tagged "eight novels that explore the complexities of reunions—with classmates from college and high school, close friends or near strangers, and former versions of ourselves." One title on the list:
Steven Rowley, The Celebrants

Five old friends from Berkeley—including a gay couple, the Jordans—have a unique pact. After their friend Alec died of an overdose just before graduation, they resolved that if ever one of the remaining five were in crisis, the group would gather for a living “funeral” to celebrate them.

The poignant story alternates between funerals past and present, in which the group is embarking on their fifties, and one of the Jordans has devastating news.
Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue