Dedication
By Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, Atria Books, 2007

Dedication by Emma

McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus,

Atria Books, 2007

       Citizen Girl was not the dumbest novel of 2004. Tom WolfeÕs I Am Charlotte Simmons was published in 2004, making it difficult for any other book to seriously contend for stupidest fiction of the year. But Citizen Girl was a dumb novel. The misguided neofeminist fairy tale by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, best-selling co-authors of The Nanny Diaries, was naive and clumsy from the beginning, and it spun wildly out of control by the end. Fortunately for Nanny Diaries fans, the latest novel from McLaughlin and Kraus is not dumb. Dedication is unexceptional and extremely unoriginal, but because it aims low it hits its target effortlessly, suggesting that the authorial duo are getting a handle on their capabilities and finding a niche that is a more realistic fit for their talents.

       Dedication borrows its plot from one of the most popular Hollywood romantic comedy formulas: a small-town boy or girl who has achieved great success in the wider world returns to the old hometown only to discover that his or her ordinary past – most significantly, a high-school romance – is impossible to bury. In this case, the plot gives us two characters who canÕt go home again: 30-year-old Kate Hollis and her old boyfriend, Jake Sharpe. Kate is awakened by a call from her high-school best friend, Laura, informing her that Jake, who has gone on to become a rock superstar, has returned to their Vermont hometown (for a reason that is never adequately explained). Kate has moved to Charleston (we assume that the city in question is the fashionable town in South Carolina, although one character suggests that itÕs in North Carolina), and she is the ultimate chick-lit success: she has a graduate degree; she works for an altruistic non-governmental organization; she is a world traveler; she has a diverse and fashionable wardrobe; and she is unmarried. Still, she has made a vow to get revenge on Jake for standing her up on prom night and turning their relationship into hit songs, so she drops everything and gets on the first plane to Vermont.

       The rest of the novel plays out with alternation between the present day and flashbacks to Kate and JakeÕs romance, circa late 1980s-early 1990s. Back then Jake was a rich, popular member of a rock band and Kate was a middle-class, popular standout on the debate team. Their lives might have seemed perfect, but of course they werenÕt. JakeÕs father was away all the time on business, and his mother was an alcoholic. KateÕs father suffered from clinical depression, and her mother had an affair. Jake and Kate consoled one another, and their relationship was intense, if shallow.

       McLaughlin and Kraus try to use the 90s as an evocative set-piece, but they do it entirely through pop-cultural name dropping, and thereÕs little sense of historical authenticity. Simply having the school choir perform ÒWe Built This City,Ó having the boys play hacky sack, furnishing houses with VCRs instead of DVD players, all of it framing action that seems entirely 21st century, doesnÕt do much to make the flashbacks sepia-toned and old-timey. For anyone over 35, the 1990s seems like yesterday anyway, making this shot at nostalgia effective only for younger readers. The 13 years that have passed between JakeÕs departure and his return are for full-fledged adults a mere heartbeat.

       Then thereÕs the whole problem with KateÕs long-term obsession with Jake. That a successful (did I mention that she works for an NGO that does evironmentally friendly work in the developing world?), independent woman would be a slave to the memory of her high-school boyfriend is counter to a neofem ideology, especially since Jake was never a good boyfriend in the first place. The teenage romance is straight out of "My So-Called Life"; Jake is Jordan Catalano, the pretty-boy musician stringing Angela/Kate along when all he really cares about is his band. Angela/Kate would like to believe that heÕs, like, all sensitive and stuff, but he never delivers the goods. The bookÕs only real point of suspense is the question of whether Kate will finally reclaim Jake or put him behind her forever. Readers of Citizen Girl (and probably most other readers, too) will be able to guess the answer long before the end.

       Yet, despite the derivative predictability of the novel, McLaughlin and Kraus never go terribly astray. Their writing has the snap and vigor that makes them so enjoyably readable, and they handle the formulaic story nimbly. As is their tendency, they lose their grip on the plot at the climax, but this novel is such fluff that it doesnÕt really matter. The fact is Dedication is a lightweight romance novel that delivers charismatic characters and lots of descriptions of clothing, scenes of shopping, discussions of colleges (why university name-dropping has become so trendy is beyond me) and adolescent earnestness. This is the genre that McLaughlin and Kraus belong in, and as long as they leave the social commentary behind them – and as long as they find a readership with an accurate sense of their skills – they should fare well.

       Evan Gillespie is a former Fort Wayne resident living in South Bend.

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