rev. of Serious Girls by Maxine Swann

Serious Girls, a novel by Maxine Swann (Doubleday): Maxine Swann—after claiming a Best American, an O. Henry, and a Pushcart for a single story that appeared in Ploughshares—follows two girls struggling to transcend the limitations of their childhood in her riveting debut novel. This is a wise and wonderful piece of storytelling that teaches us remarkable truths about adolescents who never grow "tired of asking," despite their disclaimers otherwise. —Fred Leebron