It's hard not to rate a book high when it makes you bawl your eyes out. This is a very slow moving book about three girls who are forced to room together during their first year of college. Not a lot is happening aside from these volleyball games they're participating in. However through the course of the book, they're figuring each other out. They're dealing with class gaps, religious differences, and strong personalities that repeatedly force them into conflict. Like with a lot of my favorite novels, there is a sort of existential / nihilistic theme or conversation happening throughout. The girls are questioning does my life matter? Do the choices I make matter? How can they matter when so many things in life happen randomly, when so little is under our control, and when everything we do can be undone in a moment? And, indicative of the title, why bother trying or doing or loving, when the lovers lose most in the end? Wouldn't it be easier to just not care?

The girls are really going in on the philosophical discussions, so if that's not your cup of tea, this definitely won't be for you, but I really loved it. I was never eager to pick this up, but the emotional payoff in the end was worth it for me and the themes discussed made it feel special to me, a good addition to my collection of books that basically tell you that nothing matters, but we must go on as if they do.

Reading this was part of my project to re-read all of the childhood books I've kept over the years. I did a clean out awhile back, getting rid of anything I didn't at least have a vague positive memory of. I remembered almost nothing about this book, but I am very impressed with kid-Tanya's taste. ( )

Three roommates in their first year of college in 1961 - deep conversations, attempts to figure each other out. All three play volleyball and succeed on the team.
A little slow in spots and the conversations between the three seem disjointed at times. ( )

Tell Me If the Lovers Are Losers is a YA novel of a different sort. In it, we follow three young women through their first few months of early 1960s college life: Ann, a responsible middle-class daughter; Niki, a rebellious athlete with an aggressive temper; and Hildy, an outsider with a reaching spirituality. Crisis builds on crisis, and the plot moves quickly, if predictably, toward graduation and resolution.

Published in 1982, the book takes seriously the problems of the young adult yearning to realize her identity; in this way, it reminded me of Madeleine L'Engle's respectful approach to writing for young adults. The writing and plotting do not particularly sparkle, but the characterization is strong and realistic. Some YA readers may struggle to identify with the limited options facing these characters, and the firm moral hand in the presentation may put off a generation steeped in relativism. Still, for readers who are interested in moving deeper into the YA genre, this is a solid foundational novel.

The ways in which the characters interact is quite readable, but the entire substance of the book's conclusion is predictable from chapter 6 or so. Even from chapter 3, it's clear that Something Bad will have to happen to bring about Important Life Lessons, and that Something Bad must necessarily happen to a particular character. It makes me sad. Voigt can be a much better author than this. ( )

An early effort by Voigt, whose later work (like the award-winning 'Tillerman' novels, and especially 'A Solitary Blue') could be downright magical. She's learning her craft here, and only partly succeeds.

We meet three young women as they commence their freshman year at a college, circa 1960. Ann is the keynote character, rather sensible and middle class. She likes to relax in the tub with her favorite 'Calgon Take Me Away' book - 'The Odyssey'...? Say what?! Ann is very likely based on Voigt herself in about 1960, but let's just say she has little character traits like this that are hard to relate to. Niki is brassy and uses bad language, and shocks the extremely sheltered and religious Hildy. Niki is the most interesting. Hildy is a pretty well-drawn character, but is cooler and more annoyingly self-righteous than, i think, Voigt intended her to be.

The 3 get involved in a volleyball team, which makes a nice sports-metaphor for life; working together, strengths and weaknesses, responding to situations, etc. The games are described in too much detail and can get kind of tedious. A traumatic event at the end is kind of a shocker. It shocks Niki too, her reaction somewhat extreme, and defined by a whole lot of vomiting, even after days of not eating, which is a bit physiologically implausible. But still, you believe in the characters and care about them, and feel like you were there. Voigt's a gifted writer, and she got better. ( )