Friends who are girls?

Current book: The Bostonians
Pages read: 55-95

Wow, did nothing happen in 40 pages. Shockingly, shockingly nothing. Verena Tarrant came to visit Olive Chancellor, and Olive was freakishly clingy and demanded that they become bosom friends (heh) instantly, which Verena was happy to go along with because she's flighty and ridiculous. We found out that Verena's mother thinks that Olive will act as a conduit through which the Tarrant family can enter society. (Apparently Verena's mother is myopic, because Olive couldn't be less of a society girl. She wears plain-cut black frocks and consorts with vegetarians. I mean, really.) Basil manages to meet Verena in Olive's drawing room and is pretty much determined to woo her at this point. That's it. Really. I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel, here. Why did this take 40 pages? No one will ever know.

Honestly, James isn't as bad as I remember, but then again, when I read this book the first time it was for a horrible seminar course taught by a completely untalented professor and populated by a bunch of arrogant sophomores. So now it seems a little better, and I sort of take back the incredibly vulgar nickname by which I used to refer to James on a regular basis*. Although, honestly, I miss the whispered sarcasm from my friend B. who used to sit next to me and exchange caustic barbs. Oh, caustic barbs. You go so well with 19th-century literature.

*Really, it's not fit for the internet. Bad, bad words.