American Children — Ann Birstein

Lois Ackerman watched her friends changing around her, and watched herself change as she sturggled to come to terms with her own intelligence in a time when intellignce and womanhood weren't supposed to mix; as she fell happily into the baffling predicaments of sex; and as she made her way nimbly around the compromises and capitulations that were claiming the brightest and best of her companions. This funny, touching novel radiates the aura of a fondly remembered, vanished age a time not so innocent (and not so distant) as we might be tempted to believe.