Too Much Too Young: The Novel of a Generation

Bridgwood ( Trespasses ) tears full-throttle through a thoroughly rousing yarn about four British tail-end baby boomers born in a nondescript town near London in 1959. The quartet rub elbows in primary school before privilege--or the lack of it--splits them apart. Jackie is a shy, pretty and responsible girl; Matthew, a smug, charismatic narcissist; ``soppy Stephen,'' a shrinking, thoughtful boy whose twin sister died at birth; and Carolyn, a wild child who lives to shock her parents. Chronicling a generation via this motley crew, Bridgwood favors unique twists on familiar situations over sticky cliches. Flung out of medical school for peddling prescription drugs, opportunistic Matthew makes a fortune as a bond trader before the '87 crash. Stephen eventually embraces his homosexuality and opens an AIDS counseling center. Meantime, Jackie plays perfect businesswoman, wife and mother, until the cracks in her life form an abyss, while Carolyn makes a splash on TV and a hash of her love life. As her characters sprint and stagger through childhood, rocky adolescence and adult pitfalls, Bridgwood offers a boisterous page-turner that loses steam only at the contrived reunion at the end. (Feb.)