The Rules of Attraction

Camden College is a small, wealthy liberal-arts school in New England that thinks of itself as bohemian. Three of its students drift through the term with no plans for the future, or even for the coming week, and slide into a romantic triangle.

Lauren swaps boyfriends whenever she swaps majors, yet she still pines for Victor, who left for Europe months ago. She may or may not be sending anonymous love letters to Sean.

Sean drinks hard, is ambivalent about most things and is a hopeless romantic with his eyes on Lauren, even as he sleeps with half the campus. Paul, Lauren's ex, is openly bisexual, and a shrewd pragmatism lies under his passion.

Their days run on Thirsty Thursday Happy Hours, Dressed To Get Screwed parties and late drinks at The Edge of the World or The Graveyard. The book follows these students through their sexual posturing and heartache, and the moral emptiness at the centre of their lives is plain to the reader even when they cannot see it.

The novel is kaleidoscopic in structure, moving between its three students' perspectives. Its tone is darkly funny and acrid, with some compassion for its characters. It is a comic, bleak look at the death of romance on campus.