Object Lessons

National Review, May 25, 1992 by Mark Cunningham

Object Lessons, by Anna Quindlen (Ivy Books, 323 pp., paper, $5.99)

ANNA Quindlen has just won a Pulitzer for her twice-weekly "Public and Private" column, which appears on the op-ed page of the New York Times. That the column is distinguished mainly by a shrill, self-righteous tone and specious argument seems not to have mattered; I like to think the Pulitzer Committee was merely rewarding the Times for finally giving a spot to someone under forty. Certainly Miss Quindlen is a genuine voice of her generation and class, in her virtues as well as her vices. The virtues are on full display in her endearing first novel, Object Lessons, now out in paperback. It is the story of one summer in the life of Maggie Scanlon, the summer when everything changed: dawning adolescence, romance, and family instability. The baby-boomers' defining prejudices-- that theirs is the first generation to experience true idealism and to know the infuriating limits (as well as joys) that derive from each man's particular heritage-are there. But instead of indulging in her familiar whiny sermonizing Miss Quindlen here evokes those feelings by her depictions of characters and events. Even the somewhat caricatured family members--the wise rebel "aunt," the klepto-entrepreneurial, Kennedy-hating Irish grandfather-are nuanced, simultaneously cherished and resented by the author and her characters. Miss Quindlen's narrative is shaped by human nature, with the epigram one character quotes "Life is a comedy for those who think, a tragedy for those who feel"---giving a fair summary of her take on life. No doubt her children will grow up to be Republicans.