In the wake of Barack Obama's landmark 2008 presidential win, his campaign staffers--young, eager and flushed with capital-H Hope--flocked to Washington, D.C., to begin their new careers. But for some of them, post-victory life proved bittersweet, especially for the spouses of those staffers. In her third novel, The Hopefuls, Jennifer Close (The Smart One) captures the initial adrenaline rush and the resulting disillusionment through the eyes of Beth, one such spouse.
Though Beth adores her life in New York, she gamely follows her husband, Matt, to the capital after Obama's win and her own layoff. As she struggles to adjust (hating the traffic, the ubiquitous Ann Taylor suits and the absurd government acronyms), Beth wonders if she's made a huge mistake. But when she and Matt meet Ash and Jimmy, a gregarious Texan couple in Matt's work circle, everything seems to click. The four rapidly become best friends, and Beth feels she may have cracked the code of D.C. life after all.
Like so many friendships, though, this one proves complicated, and Close deftly charts the fault lines of jealousy, competition and attraction that run through the couples' intertwined lives. As Matt and Beth flounder in their careers, and Jimmy's star keeps rising, the cracks begin to show in their friendship--and in Matt and Beth's marriage.
While it soberly acknowledges the difficulties of matrimony, Close's narrative is infused with humor, warmth and (yes) hope. Clear-eyed and unflinchingly forthcoming, The Hopefuls is a skillful portrait of a status-crazed city and its young elite. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams