Review of The Brightness by Chad Harbach

Harbach's 672-page follow-up to The Art of Fielding focuses on two female protagonists at the fictional Westish College as they figure out themselves, make missteps, forge new paths, and zigzag their way forward in messy young-adulthood.

In this campus-set novel, Harbach explores the messy, tangled lives of disparate best friends Pella and Irma as they figure out who they are and what they're about as they prepare to emerge from college.

Pella is 27 and a recent graduate of Midwestern Westish College. She's engaged to her longtime boyfriend Mike, who seems to be having a hard time leaving his party days behind and is desperately committed to his assistant coach position in the football program at Westish. Pella is finally finding some peace after the death of her father, and she's headed to her friend Owen's elaborate wedding weekend. Both Owen and Mike seem to take Pella's people-pleasing, desire to mother them, and cooking prowess for granted--and Owen has been overextending Pella as he relies on her for much of his over-the-top wedding planning. He has found fame through writing a slightly fictionalized account of his life at Westish, including a character named Pella (with a slightly altered last name, rendering her easily identifiable and causing others to believe they know her after reading the version of her in the novel). She helped him by serving as his first editor, but her work on the book is uncredited. This is one more example of men seeming to take what they wish from Pella without accountability.

Irma is somewhat reluctantly taking part in a politically charged stunt at The Parties that kick off her senior year. As the single recipient of her year's prestigious academic scholarship, she is somewhat set apart from her classmates. But taking part in a feminist prank might bring her closer to the mysterious, fearless Dahlia and another friend Pammy--if Irma can bring herself to go through with it. The women are surprised by the impact of and fallout from what soon becomes a very public, national-news set of acts, which inspire a discussion of rape culture as well as perceived extremism and accusations of unfair targeting of young men.

In one weekend, both Irma's and Pella's lives--as well as many of those in their inner circles--are thrown into disarray, and their futures suddenly become anything but certain.

Chad Harbach is also the author of The Art of Fielding, which is referred to within this novel as a work written by the character of Owen. Whereas Fielding's first novel focused more on baseball and male characters, The Brightness (the name of a feminist publication in this story) is primarily concerned with two main female protagonists.

On a somewhat minor note, I didn't fully believe others' fascination with either Mike or Irma; Mike seemed one-dimensional, sloppy, simple, and put-upon, whereas Irma seemed very intelligent but nervously naive and uncertain of herself. Yet they are each presented as inspiring intrigue from other, more sophisticated or knowledgeable characters. This was a little puzzling to me.

Ultimately, various players' expectations are upended, and disappointment, tragedy, heartbreak, and fractured relationships allow for self-discovery, newly imagined paths, revised plans, and rejections of societal rigidity.

This is a 672-page novel. I eventually became more interested in the life paths of Irma and Pella, but it took a while for me to feel curious about what was going to happen in the story.

I received a prepublication audio version of this title courtesy of Hachette Audio and Libro.fm, and I received an electronic version courtesy of NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company.

More Books to Explore

Chad Harbach is also the author of The Art of Fielding.

For Bossy reviews of more campus-set novels, please check out the titles at this link, and you'll find reviews of more college-set stories here.

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