After the Reunion

What a great sequel! This book flows so seamlessly with it's predecessor 'Class Reunion', that it's difficult to remember where that book ended, and this one started. We pick up almost right where we left off in 'Class Reunion'...5 years after the girls 20th reunion from Radcliffe. This book also has some new voices too! We hear Kat's (Emily's daughter) narrative, as well as Emma's, who is Annabel's daughter. Also, Teddy, Daphne's youngest son, starts up a journal that we read...but that, I thought, was a bit out of place. In the whole book, there were only about 4 entries in the journal...and while it was nice because it gave you a different point of view into the Caldwell family, I think I would have liked to have seen it a little more developed. Regardless, the book was great. I was bummed when I finished because I'd gotten so used to picking up a book, and reading about the lives of these four women, whom I've come to feel like I know personally. I just received two more of Ms. Jaffe's books in the mail, and can't wait to start on them...I'm so glad I discovered her books, they've quickly become my all time favorites!

This book continues the stories of the four Harvard/Radcliffe graduates of the '50s. However, it isn't quite as gripping plotwise, as the original "Class Reunion". I don't want to give the plot away, because it is just fascinating how they all end up. However, the ending seemed incomplete in that not everyone's life was tied up and set.I think that Rona should have a third sequal which takes the four college graduates into menopause. In her later books, Road Taken, and Room-Mating season, she certainly takes her characters into old-age!But, this is definitely one of the better Rona Jaffe novels, and absolutely required once you finish "Class Reunion".

I enjoyed this book just as much as Class Reunion. In fact, Class Reunion should have just been one big book. This book brings things full circle. The girls meet up again and become actual friends as they had started out as in Class Reunion. At the end, I kept wanting more pages b/c I wanted to know what happened to them. (I'd convinced myself on the last page that I saw more text and was disappointed when there wasn't more!) Everyone's "second" life seemed to be working for them and they seemed to be happy. It's kind of like they fell into something wonderful instead of going towards something that they were "supposed" to want. This books makes me seriously think about the things I want in my own life.

I do not read much in the way of "popular fiction" (Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts, Jackie Collins, etc.), but I read "Class Reunion" by Rona Jaffe when I was a teenager. Back then, of course, I was probably looking for the racy parts, but the characters stayed with me and I reread the book a number of times over the years.I was thrilled when "After the Reunion" was published, and read it immediately. And now, when I feel like revisiting familiar characters ("comfort reading," I call it), I reread "After the Reunion" rather than "Class Reunion." I like the way the characters learn to take charge of their lives in so-called middle age, and escape their rigid 1950s upbringings. They show that it's never too late to change your life for the better! I also like that we get details on the next generation as well, specifically Annabelle's daughter Emma and Emily's daughter Kit. Annabelle and Chris, however, remain my favorite characters throughout both books.If you are looking for involving fiction that follows several characters, pick up both these books. Definitely read "Class Reunion" first, but don't forget "After the Reunion" as well.