This warm and witty book traces a tangled path of female friendship and creative work ... Like Colwin, Kois focuses on intimate conversations and atmospheric details. There are literary and pop-culture references throughout the book, but they aren’t out of proportion with the plot and the book’s emotional heart ... Balanced against the backdrop of East Village gentrification and Lucy’s bittersweet posthumous revival, Kois’s storytelling is both breezy and insightful. Where he shines brightest is in scenes between friends ... It is joyful and comforting to read a novel with loving, complicated characters who aren’t defeated by life — despite many reasons they could be.
Kois not only brings a certain lightness to decades that are as full of loss and angst as they are of discovery and triumph; he reminds us that darkness and light always coexist ... Which brings me to my one problem with this novel: too much coexisting. Kois toggles among so many different scenes and characters that I sometimes wished he had made some more of his own hard choices ... Vintage Contemporaries is crammed a bit too full of plot, not unlike the cramped city it documents. Fortunately, it’s also overstuffed with bittersweet beauty, not unlike the vintage contemporaries of Laurie Colwin.
While their relationship and its more fraught aspects over the years are a big part of the novel — and could likely have sustained a book on its own — there’s more to the story ... Not every subplot clicks into place perfectly: Em’s dealing with structural inequality in the publishing industry doesn’t have the same force as the clashes with mortality, addiction and the Giuliani administration that arise elsewhere. But the cumulative effect of these disparate threads is considerable; it’s a novel that is both an argument about art and a compelling example of it.
The Em-and-Emily relationship is the novel's core strength, and 'spark plug' Emily powers many of the scenes. Unfortunately, when she is not around, the narrative loses momentum, not least during the overlong episodes devoted to parenthood. Kois misses a chance to inject some much-needed grit into the proceedings by glossing over the heroin addiction which drove a wedge between the women ... Vintage Contemporaries is at its most engaging when Em is navigating the cutthroat world of publishing, and when she and Emily are bright lights in a big city, rebels with a cause and 'two halves of one whole.'
An exceptionally warm-hearted new novel ... Vintage Contemporaries does not linger in its sadness. Part of the argument of this novel is that books about happiness are as worth celebrating as books about tragically beautiful people having tragically unhappy sex and all the other trendy topics du jour ... Not to say there aren’t clumsy moments ... This is a lovely and mostly cheerful novel about women and their domestic and professional struggles: it is the kind of book its characters champion. In its sweetness and the delicacy of its approach, its shining array of well-chosen telling details, it more than makes its case.
Lovers of used paperbacks and 1990s nostalgia will find a lot to like about this wholesome debut novel, and are likely to leave it with a new book recommendation or two.
haring the vibe of Emma Straub and Jean Thompson, Kois’ delectably smart, witty, caring, and radiating read channels an amusing and admirable woman’s evolving perspective and experiences.
Charming if schematic ... Kois meanders through roughly sketched plot points....and resolves the substantial conflict that arises between the Emilys too quickly. With its sharp edges filed into a too-perfect smile, this one lacks bite.
What does the Emilys’ story mean at a deeper level? It's hard to say ... Keenly observed if imperfect ... This atmospheric first novel is an ode to friendship, creativity, and an era now gone.
