With a droll, comedic tone and an introspective look into female friendships, Charlotte Silver’s BENNINGTON GIRLS ARE EASY is already being hailed as one of the summer’s top reads. Set not at Bennington College but in New York City, the novel follows two Bennington graduates as they navigate the highs and lows of being underemployed and understimulated as twentysomethings.

When we first meet Sylvie Furst and Cassandra Puffin, who are reuniting after Sylvie’s semester abroad, we are instantly taken with their bond. Intimate and visceral, their relationship is more akin to that of lovers than the breezy, detached nature the title suggests. While Sylvie is dark-haired, bohemian, and in complete control of her sexuality, her dear friend Cassandra --- blonde, studious and in a committed relationship --- is the tamer of the two, though no less stubborn. Although the girls adore one another, it is easy, even this early on, to detect hints of cattiness as they speak to one another. With all of their differences in personality and experience, they are each a bit jealous of the other. These highs and lows in their relationship, combined with Silver’s deadpan delivery, makes the reader feel sort of voyeuristic, as if we are eavesdropping.

"I often found myself putting down the book to get away from [Sylvie and Cassandra], which speaks volumes to Silver’s ability to create strong, affecting characters."

Although the novel begins at Bennington College, it does not stay there very long, as Sylvie and Cassandra graduate from the luscious green valley to return to their shared hometown of Cambridge. It is here that their true colors come to light. I will not spare any time in telling you that both characters are intensely unlikable. Spoiled, vain and uninterested, they seem to have it all, from an expensive and well-rounded college education to supportive families and even a wealthy group of friends --- and yet, they cannot seem to get their acts together.

Sylvie takes a job at a local bakery, but soon finds that the work is just not for her and, when an opportunity arises, flees to New York City, where she is sure her dreams await. Cassandra visits her often and, swayed by Sylvie’s excitement, joins her in the city after her relationship with her Harvard boyfriend falls apart. This move could be said to be the beginning of the end of their friendship.

Silver’s clever title may suggest that Sylvie and Cassandra move to the city and immediately begin a life of meaningless sexual encounters and banal conversations, a la “Sex and the City.” But this is not the case. True, they do meet boys and sometimes even take them to their beds, but the real meat of the book is their crumbling friendship and complete lack of moral compasses. While they quickly become adept at navigating the big city, their inability to change, grow or even think about their actions quickly becomes grating. As the girls take advantage of one another and struggle to stay afloat even with their incredible educations and opportunities, it is certainly difficult to spend time with them. I often found myself putting down the book to get away from them, which speaks volumes to Silver’s ability to create strong, affecting characters. At the same time, however, her writing was often disjointed, moving from timeline to timeline with little to hold onto, possibly because it was difficult to care about what happened to her characters.

In the end, Sylvie attempts to start a cupcake stand in a nearly manic state of ambition, as Cassandra does anything she can to avoid helping, even though they are roommates and she is severely underemployed. Their friendship, which once swayed in Sylvie’s favor, has lost all groundings, and the girls argue and inevitably split up. Although Silver’s take on the power of female friendships is questionable, her realistic depiction of unevenly balanced lives is spot on. For in the end, it does not matter that the girls had each other, or studied abroad, or dated numerous men. It only matters that they remained unaffected by each of these experiences and stagnated, proving that, while Bennington girls may be easy, an unbalanced life is certainly not.