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A review by flogigyahoo
Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz
4.0
Just finished reading Admission, all 634 pages, about Portia, a 38 year old admission officer, at Princeton in a 16 year relationship with Mark, a professor at the same University.
This is an extremely well written, intelligent, at times fascinating and elegant novel. I could not put it down. I can easily recommend it to anyone wishing to pass a couple of pleasant days reading about an entrancing heroine whose life goes through a traumatic upheaval, both personally and work based. Her insights and explanations of the inner workings of the college admission process is erudite and compelling. Anyone planning to get their kids into an ivy league college will find this an eye opener.
That said, it's far too long--say 200 pages too long. The author has an agenda and repeats it again and again: kids today, even bright ones, have to go through an appalling admission process to get into the university of their choice. On top of her agenda, what our heroine undergoes during the period of this book--a few months at most--would cause any normal person to go crazy. It's just too much...she's Jewish, she's got issues with her mother who is planning on adopting a baby and apparently it's 17 year old unwed mother, with her own upbringing (her mother is wealthy yet lives "naturally"), she undergoes a totally unexpected shattering breakup of a long relationship (this is no spoiler--it's obvious from page one), the start of a new one, a staggering work load and finally--nearly 400 or more pages in--an event of mind blowing proportions. Way too much. I kept thinking and hoping: oh no, not that...not that. Life can be stranger than fiction. True. But it seems an easy way out and the author did not even need it. In spite of these drawbacks, a great read. I recommend it.
This is an extremely well written, intelligent, at times fascinating and elegant novel. I could not put it down. I can easily recommend it to anyone wishing to pass a couple of pleasant days reading about an entrancing heroine whose life goes through a traumatic upheaval, both personally and work based. Her insights and explanations of the inner workings of the college admission process is erudite and compelling. Anyone planning to get their kids into an ivy league college will find this an eye opener.
That said, it's far too long--say 200 pages too long. The author has an agenda and repeats it again and again: kids today, even bright ones, have to go through an appalling admission process to get into the university of their choice. On top of her agenda, what our heroine undergoes during the period of this book--a few months at most--would cause any normal person to go crazy. It's just too much...she's Jewish, she's got issues with her mother who is planning on adopting a baby and apparently it's 17 year old unwed mother, with her own upbringing (her mother is wealthy yet lives "naturally"), she undergoes a totally unexpected shattering breakup of a long relationship (this is no spoiler--it's obvious from page one), the start of a new one, a staggering work load and finally--nearly 400 or more pages in--an event of mind blowing proportions. Way too much. I kept thinking and hoping: oh no, not that...not that. Life can be stranger than fiction. True. But it seems an easy way out and the author did not even need it. In spite of these drawbacks, a great read. I recommend it.