Dear Ann: A Novel

The novel is told in a series of letters and re-imagined past experiences, which is to say Ann isn’t recalling what happened so much as what could have happened. The structure of the book is challenging at first, but once the story of young Ann moves to Stanford—the school she didn’t attend but perhaps should have—it is hard not to get caught up in the energy of the Summer of Love. Ann’s life, as it was and is and could have been, is a perfect cypher for human experience as we age. We question if we have done all we can, reckon with the moments we’ve failed, and agonize over choices that weren’t as brave as we wish.

One of the purest joys of the book, though, is in Ann’s area of study: English. For English majors, or those enamored with their survey courses in college, or the average bibliophile, the literary references and jokes are an absolute joy.

Dear Ann is an engrossing and beautiful book that gives on every page.