Curtis Sittenfeld
Paperback | Pages: 420 pages Rating: 3.39 | 58893 Users | 4775 Reviews
Identify Out Of Books Prep
| Title | : | Prep |
| Author | : | Curtis Sittenfeld |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 420 pages |
| Published | : | November 22nd 2005 by Random House Trade Paperbacks (first published January 17th 2005) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Young Adult. Womens Fiction. Chick Lit. Contemporary. Coming Of Age. School Stories. Boarding School. Adult Fiction |
Commentary To Books Prep
Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, Prep, is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.
As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of–and, ultimately, a participant in–their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she’s a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered.
Ultimately, Lee’s experiences–complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant, coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.
From the Hardcover edition.
Point Books During Prep
| Original Title: | Prep |
| ISBN: | 081297235X (ISBN13: 9780812972351) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Lee Fiora, Cross Sugarman, Martha Porter, Aspeth Montgomery, Dede Schwartz, Sin Jun, Conchita Maxwell, David Bardo, Aubrey |
| Setting: | Massachusetts(United States) South Bend, Indiana(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction Longlist (2006) |
Rating Out Of Books Prep
Ratings: 3.39 From 58893 Users | 4775 ReviewsComment On Out Of Books Prep
I recently read this for an encyclopedia entry I was writing on post-2000 coming-of-age novels, so my assessment, I fear, isn't really fair. On the one hand, I think Sittenfeld is a very talented writer, but on the other, I kept wanting to say GTFU (you know, grow the *#^$ up), which seems very, very ungenerous of me. In the end, I can appreciate what attracted people to this book, making it a surprise success. That doesn't mean the book sticks with me or changed my life in any drastic way---andIn her ruthless efforts to make a book that depicts how prep school really is, Curtis Sittenfelds Prep forgets that in order for a novel to work things must happen. Assumedly, the book was supposed to be a coming-of-age novel wherein the fish-out-of-water protagonist Lee Fiora, learns to exceed the repressive bounds of prep school and get over her personal issues. However, this is not the case. Instead the book is horribly lopsided, Sittenfeld spends three hundred pages having the protagonist
I always say that if a writer can evoke complete hatred and dislike for their protagonist from me, then they must be a good writer (Lucinda Rosenfeld's What She Saw... comes to mind). So, in that regard, Curtis Sittenfeld is an excellent writer (perhaps it's a last name thing) but Prep sucks. Two reasons why I hated Prep: 1) NOTHING happens. I don't mind episodic novels in which each chapter is a tiny event that comes together as a whole (Peter Darbyshire's Please is an excellent example of
I always say that if a writer can evoke complete hatred and dislike for their protagonist from me, then they must be a good writer (Lucinda Rosenfeld's What She Saw... comes to mind). So, in that regard, Curtis Sittenfeld is an excellent writer (perhaps it's a last name thing) but Prep sucks. Two reasons why I hated Prep: 1) NOTHING happens. I don't mind episodic novels in which each chapter is a tiny event that comes together as a whole (Peter Darbyshire's Please is an excellent example of
This was a huge disappointment to me. The only other book I have read by this author is Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice and I enjoyed that one so much I thought I was in for another treat. Sadly it was not to be.Although the writing was beautiful and the recounting of life in a boarding school was probably fairly accurate, the main character was seriously unlikeable. And boring. And pathetic. And I could go on but I won't!The story was totally lacking in any direction or
I can't decide how I felt about this book.In some ways I could identify with the main character. The book reminded me a bit of when I went to college in upstate NY.But, at the same time, the main character was frustrating. She hated her school and where she was, but she didn't do anything about it. I loved my time in upstate NY. But this character was always complaining about how much she hated the school she went to and expressing frustration, but NOT TAKING ANY ACTION.And the whole "romance"
Lee Fiora is an average, middle class girl who feels like she is meant for far greater things than her Indiana hometown. Convincing herself that trading her Midwest family in for a fancy East Coast prep school is the answer, Lee becomes a scholarship student at the wealthy and prestigious Ault School, where she quickly learns that gaining admission isn't the same as gaining acceptance. Prep chronicles Lee's four years at Ault, starting out as an insecure and lonely freshmen, leaving as a
0 Comments