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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
Even though Sarah gave this a 2, Jimmie just absolutely insisted that I read it, so I figure I'll give it a try.
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I went to a very different kind of boarding school from the narrator but at the same time (no cell phones, only pay phones down the hall) and recognized so much of it. How close I was to my roommate who is now, sadly dead. People thought we were dating, we were so close. The only part she left out was the drugs. My campus not only had weekly keg parties in the woods, every kind of drug you can imagine circulated through there. Also I absolutely loved most of my classes, especially English, history and arts. That was true in college too. None of that was in there.
But the wealth part reminded me of college. I went to Sarah Lawrence where I used to get rides to the city from a Venezuelan girl who had a bodyguard/limo driver and wore a thick gold bracelet studded with the biggest diamonds I had ever seen in real life (TV doesn’t count).
At first I kept wondering about the plot. What was going to happen? Wouldn’t Curtis’s great detailed observations and sense of place have made a better background for a mystery novel? But in the end, it did explode satisfactorily, I just had to be patient. Nostalgia kept me going.
The part that hurt in reading this book was that I kept wanting the heroine to be better to herself, to take chances on friendship, on greater scholastic excellence, to engage in life
Instead of being a bitter bystander. It was like the opposite of The Perks of Being a Wallflower where everyone says the main character is shy and amazing but he never says anything interesting so you wonder what the big deal is. Here, Lee is funny and brilliant and deadpan and she thinks she’s so ordinary and not pretty enough. I wanted to hug her and shake her and tell her to get over herself and start living all at the same time.
But the wealth part reminded me of college. I went to Sarah Lawrence where I used to get rides to the city from a Venezuelan girl who had a bodyguard/limo driver and wore a thick gold bracelet studded with the biggest diamonds I had ever seen in real life (TV doesn’t count).
At first I kept wondering about the plot. What was going to happen? Wouldn’t Curtis’s great detailed observations and sense of place have made a better background for a mystery novel? But in the end, it did explode satisfactorily, I just had to be patient. Nostalgia kept me going.
The part that hurt in reading this book was that I kept wanting the heroine to be better to herself, to take chances on friendship, on greater scholastic excellence, to engage in life
Instead of being a bitter bystander. It was like the opposite of The Perks of Being a Wallflower where everyone says the main character is shy and amazing but he never says anything interesting so you wonder what the big deal is. Here, Lee is funny and brilliant and deadpan and she thinks she’s so ordinary and not pretty enough. I wanted to hug her and shake her and tell her to get over herself and start living all at the same time.
This is a remarkable book. My high school experience was far from Lee’s, but the lucid way in which Sittenfeld describes adolescence is incredibly resonant, sometimes nauseatingly so. I’m glad I read it before beginning the Groton chapter of my life and I’m glad I didn’t read it when I was closer to high school.
I only made it through about 200 pages of this book and then gave up. The plot doesn't move, I strongly disliked the main character, and the book was so wordy. I wouldn't recommend this book.
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Incredibly powerful. I felt like I was reading a much more coherent version of my own adolescent diary. I was Lee Fiora, as were so many other girls. We were the girls who never had a lot of girlfriends, who always felt awkward in groups, being asked to participate felt like some sort of trick, or like pity...and there was always that one guy, the one that was more than a friend, but not quite a boyfriend. This book was exilerating, and painful, and beautiful. I literally couldn't stop thinking about it for days.
This is a story about Lee, a teenager who who has grandiose dreams of what boarding school is like, who move away from her family at 14 to attend a prestigious high school. Most of the book takes place in her head and she can come across as completely neurotic, worrying about situations that haven't happened and situations that will *never* happen. She over-analyzes everyone and everything, and yet while she can be exhausting, I think there are parts of her personality that are quite relatable. She keeps to herself for the most part, and manages to fly under the radar through school, maintaining her outsider role. Lee begins a secret "relationship" with one of the popular boys in her class during her senior year, but things don't work out the way she planned, especially after she gives an interview for the newspaper that exposes the social structure of boarding school life. I really enjoyed the writing; the author managed to capture the high school angst, but articulate it from the narrator's adult point of view.