
4 Books to Read if You’re Nursing a GIRLS Hangover
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Lena Dunham’s Girls had its series finale on Sunday, April 16, 2017.
I’m a fan of the show, but I thought I’d cope well with it coming to an end. After all, it was time: the show had a great run (six seasons!), the girls (women!) had grown up and were moving on and, frankly, I’ve said goodbye to so many awesome shows in the past. Why should it be any different with Girls? The “why” I (still) cannot answer, but it was different. I’ve been in withdrawal ever since last Sunday, when I turned on the TV and realized that I wouldn’t be getting my Hannah-fix. Girls marked an era for me, though I don’t think I realized this until it was over. It wasn’t a perfect show, but as far as TV series go it was a trailblazing experiment in placing women in uncomfortable situations – and, by that, I mean uncomfortable for the protagonists and for us, the audience – and showing us a wider range of possibilities for female characters. Case in point: during the show’s first season, I remember feeling white-hot anger when I came across a comment that disparaged Lena Dunham’s naked scenes. You should be ashamed of yourself, wrote a troll. No one wants to see that on TV. All it takes it five minutes, an internet connection, and a search engine to discover that this bit of misogyny was an oft-repeated criticism. Haters were all for watching Jessa or Marnie walk around in their underwear, but not Hannah, who, in their minds, had to either lose weight or put clothes on. And the fact that Hannah did not put clothes on (literally and metaphorically) was a much-needed F-you to a generation who has come a long way in terms of women’s issues, but who still has too many blind spots on the matter. I wish Girls had done more, especially in terms of racial and ethnic diversity. But it did do something. Maybe it’s fair to say that Girls took a step in the right direction in doing what art is supposed to do: disrupt, disquiet, disturb. And while I do not believe that there is a substitute to Girls (it is, after all, one-of-a-kind), I’ve compiled a list of books that have a certain Girls-like energy to them. Some of them deal with two or three characters, and not four, and some of them take place partly in Cambridge, and not entirely in New York City, but they all have strong, young women trying to figure out post-collegiate life in the city that never sleeps, juggling their expectations, venting their frustrations, and dealing with the unexpectedness of – all of a sudden – being in different moments in their lives, all while trying to stick together. Here’s what you might like if…. Your favorite character is Marnie: