From Booklist
Imagine being "campused." Horrors! For that meant virtual imprisonment in one's dorm room as punishment for not having both feet solidly on the floor while entertaining a male guest. So things went, along with strictly enforced curfews, panty raids, and girdles for proper young women, in 1959, especially in the South. Transplanted New Yorker Francie, a first-semester University of Florida senior, is delighted that Amanda and Liz, though more worldly than she, accept her, after which it is soon bye-bye to dateless roomie Mary Ella and hello to off-campus housing with her newfound friends and three other students--men! Sputters Mary Ella, living embodiment of feminine dreams of the time (she's bent on getting an MRS
before graduation), "Consider me grateful I don't have to share this room with a loose woman next term." Survivors of the era Gerber depicts may shake their heads in recollection and cheer Francie's efforts at independence, while younger readers will appreciate the charm and fast pacing of a period piece presaging the feminist movement.
Whitney ScottCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Readers will enjoy Glimmering Girls for its combination of poetry, sexuality, humor, and yearning in a young woman's life." - Charlotte Zoe Walker, SUNY Oneonta, former NEA creative writing fellow and O. Henry Award winner "Throw 'em down!" "Throw 'em down!" "Throw 'em down!" The roar of men's voices rises up from the street like a geyser, falling away, then shooting upward with new intensity. "Okay... throw 'em down my panties," Liz says, reaching back an arm to pull open her dresser drawer without even lifting her eyes from the pages of her book. Feeling around, she plucks out a pair of red lace panties and tosses them over to Francie. "Go on, toss them out the window. Give those swest Florida farm boys a little thrill." - except from Glimmering Girls"
