History Lesson for Girls: A Novel
Penguin, June 2007
In 1975, Alison Glass, age thirteen, moves to Connecticut with her bohemian parents and her horse, Jazz. Shy, observant, and in a back brace for scoliosis, Alison finds strength in an unlikely friendship with Kate Hamilton, the charismatic but troubled daughter of an egomaniacal new age guru and his substance-loving wife. As the sincere but misguided "Women of History" plan the town's bicentennial (complete with red, white, and blue Porta-Potties), the girls escape into the world of their horses, seeking refuge from the chaos in their lives.
Set against the backdrop of the disturbingly reckless and often hilariously tacky 1970s, History Lesson for Girls is a coming-of-age story rich in humor and heartbreak, and an elegy to a friendship that meant everything.
paperback | ISBN: 9780143111900 | Publication Date: June 2007
Reviews:
"This wistful, gentle novel has something surprisingly harsh to say
about coming of age in a culture of
self-indulgence and spiritual foolishness."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Subtle and moving."
--O, The Oprah Magazine (Summer Fiction Pick)
"Funny, nimble . . . honest. The truest novel that I've found in
ages."
--Koren Zailckas, author of Smashed: Story of a Drunken
Girlhood
"Poignant . . . Tragedy looms, as Sheehan reminds her readers that
heartbreak is a requisite part of growing up.
Three stars."
--People
"Sheehan's writing is often bull's-eye perfect."
--Entertainment Weekly
"Wise and refreshing . . . [Sheehan's] language remains carefully
off-kilter, gorgeously specific and shot through with
unobtrusive wit . . . Lyrical, assured, heartbreaking."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Sheehan juxtaposes small moments the way an artist uses colors,
creating potency and meaning with immediate contrasts
. . . Tender, unflinching, and distinctive view of how girls grow up."
--Booklist
"Alison Glass, the insightful and lively thirteen-year-old
narrator-protagonist of
History Lesson for Girls, Aurelie Sheehan's second novel . . .
reminds us once again why girls' voices and stories matter."
--Chicago Tribune
"Sheehan catches with consummate skill those perilous moments when
girls gallop into the unknown territory of womanhood."
--The Hartford Courant
"Aurelie Sheehan, whose earlier novel The Anxiety of Everyday
Objects garnered praise, has again crafted a novel that smoothly
incorporates the tender humor of a young teen with the dark moments of
an adult world disintegrating around
her . . . She excels at depicting the terrible, but fragile, intensity
of young female friendships."
--Rocky Mountain News
"The '70s witnessed a clash between bohemianism and the civil rights
movement and the stalwart old guard, and no one describes it better
than the young woman in Aurelie Sheehan's
History Lesson for Girls."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"Aurelie Sheehan's funny, nimble, bright-eyed prose is far more
honest than the fiction we call Western
civ. Relentless and relatable, History Lesson for Girls is the
truest novel that I've found in ages. Read it. Now. By flashlight. In
the prone position. If not solely to remember the place that you and I
come
from -- the year before doubt, before sex, before adult injustice, all
the raw deals we'll never understand and never really escape."
--Koren Zailckas, author of Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood
"Sheehan perfectly captures the breath-catching intensity of those
early friendships between young girls, when adults feel peripheral but
aren't, and everything hangs in the balance of large and small acts
of love and betrayal. Beautifully written, Sheehan has a wonderful
memory for the details of an era many of us will never forget."
--Cammie McGovern, author of Eye Contact and The Art of
Seeing
