I couldn't make myself finish this book, but I gave it a fair chance, laboring through more than a hundred pages. I tried it because of its jacket copy mentioning Sylvia Plath and academia, but there's really precious little of either here. This is pure unadulterated chick lit, and not much more. It's Betty (Rachel) and Veronica (Diana) with Ph.D.'s, competing for the attention of an old-money Harvard-educated playboy-prof Reggie (Carson). Archie's probably in there somewhere too, maybe in the university computer geek, Mikey. The plot is just so high school Harlequin, however, that I couldn't stick with it.

Here's a sample of its chickie purple prose, from a passage where Diana has tried unsucessfully to end her friends with benefits relationship with Mikey -

"Diana looked into Mikey's face and scanned his dark eyes, which were somehow both lost and puppylike yet also reassuring and fearless, and couldn't bring herself to say the words. Each time, her desire took over. Her body yearned to be close to his, and inside she ached to have his soft voice near her ear and his lilting laugh in her bed."

And Diana is the one presented as the aloof sort, an "ice princess." Rachel's inner thoughts and roiling emotions are even purpler and blechh-ier than the above.

I don't think I'm a complete snob about popular women's fiction, because I have enjoyed numerous books by LaVyrle Spencer, Elizabeth Berg and others of their ilk in years past. But maybe I'm past that phase of my reading life. In any case, CROSSING WASHINGTON SQUARE is the stuff that Lifetime TV movies, and I'm sure plenty of women would/do love this book. As for me, despite its supposed trappings of academia and books, I just couldn't handle it. It's just too damn, well, high school all over again. ( )

I really enjoyed this look at two different female professors - Rachel (the emotional one who incorporates "chick lit" and contemporary literature into her studies) and Diana (the old-school dragon lady). Each woman quickly discovers that she has more in common with the other than she thought. I particularly enjoyed the glimpses into academic life and the thoughtful defense of "chick lit." I look forward to reading more of Joanne Rendell's books in the future. ( )