SOLVED. I think it was called "Beautiful Girls". [s]

[Lorna]

I read it in the mid-1990s; not sure how old it was then. May not have been set in the same year it was published, but it probably takes place in the 80s, given some details.

College setting, multiple POV characters. Three girls are a mini-clique. One of them was raped as a teenager: she was home alone and the rapist came in through the unlocked patio door. As a result, she's bulimic. She ends her binges with ice cream, because that makes it easier to start vomiting. Also, when she wants to have a crying session, she listens to "An Innocent Man" by Billy Joel. Another girl has a brother who died in Vietnam; she visits the Vietnam Memorial in DC and does a rubbing of his name. I forget what the third girl's story was. One of them gets arrested for DUI, and claims that she was only driving to get away from a guy who was trying to rape her. The bulimic girl bails her out and gives the police what-for for spending more time on the DUI than the rape attempt. A lot of it had to do with sexuality and finding out who they are: truly gay or just experimenting?

We also get the POV of a fourth girl, not in their group, who is more of a girly-girl than the others and has a boyfriend who is rather condescending (makes her sit on his lap while he mansplains to her). Her mother recently came out as gay and is living with another woman. When she spends the weekend with mom and mom's GF, she has a moment alone with mom and sputters "How...how..." Mom cuts her off, "I can't explain it to you." I think this girl's name was Susan; at the end, one of the other girls says "[name], you aren't worth mentioning," and IIRC, it was "Susan, you aren't worth mentioning."

Couple more details: Someone hosts Afternoon Tea every Friday, and anyone who attends has to wear a hat. Susan, or whatever her name is, is said to take Cosmo advice very seriously. She and some of the other are on the staff of either the newspaper or the lit mag.

I tried a search, here and elsewhere, but I had even less luck searching for "Beautiful Girls" than I did with "The Edge"! And there's a tiny chance that's not the title. But I'm sure that it had "Girls" in the title. And it's because of the Vietnam Memorial and the Billy Joel album that I think it was set, even if not published, in the early-to-mid 1980s; the Memorial was opened in 1982, the album was released in 1983, and these are both presented as being fairly new.

[Rosa]

Pretty Girls

[Kate]

Lorna ~~ your book?

[Rosa]

It's only been three minutes.

[Lorna]

Hot dog, we have a wiener! Thank you so much!

[Rosa]

You're very welcome, glad I could help!

[Rosa]

If you're interested, I found it by searching with the phrases “an innocent man,” “Billy Joel,” and “Vietnam memorial” on archive.org, using the “Search text contents” function. You could read it on there, if you wished. The Internet Archive is wonderful for finding forgotten books, especially if you remember exact names and phrases.

[Lorna]

Thank you!