AN UPPER WEST SIDE STORY

Four New Yorkers in their 20s build relationships and careers in Cullen’s novel.

In 2004, Jessica returns home to find her boyfriend in a compromising position with another woman. She laments the relationship, especially since the two were planning to move in together. Rent is sky-high on the Upper West Side, but Jessica gets a tip about a two-bedroom unit, with the roommate’s share at $1200 per month. The leaseholder is Robin, an assistant brand manager for Victoria’s Secret skincare. She invites Jessica to look at the place, but another person beats her to the punch: Tory, a trust fund baby who still lives at home with her warring parents. They have altered the trust to give her less money, so she needs the relatively affordable rent, as her publishing assistant job pays next to nothing. Jessica, learning that she won’t get the apartment, bursts into tears and meets Zach, who lives down the hall. He is riding high with his job at Expedia, but he invites her to be his roommate. She moves in, and it’s not long before he makes a move romantically and she considers moving back to her native Sonoma for good. The author gives equal time to her four protagonists, and fills each of their stories with enough complexity to make their busy lives enjoyable to read about (Jessica on her graphic design job: “some power-hungry Harvard MBA comes in at the last minute, tweaks one of the charts, and takes credit for ninety pages of my work. Then I come back the next day and do it all over again”). The narrative is laser-focused and the writing self-assured, with the interconnected stories making room for a few gratifying surprises. With four revolving narrators, distinctions between them are key, and the voice of Robin could have been made less generic. Yet Cullen has a terrific ability to evoke the milieu and write about that age when everyone is so busy and everything feels so pivotal.

An entertaining novel that nicely captures the hopes and dreams of four young professionals in New York City.