Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Picador (2006), Edition: New edition, Paperback
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: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. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Curtis Sittenfeld's Sisterland.Praise for Prep �??Curtis Sittenfeld is a young writer with a crazy amount of talent. Her sharp and economical prose reminds us of Joan Didion and Tobias Wolff. Like them, she has a sly and potent wit, which cuts unexpectedly�??but often�??through the placid surface of her prose. Her voice is strong and clear, her moral compass steady; I�??d believe anything she told me.�?��??Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius �??Prep�??s every sentence rings true. Sittenfeld is a rising star.�?��??Wally Lamb, author of She�??s Come Undone… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member mrstreme
Lee Fiora decided at the tender age of 13 that she wanted to escape her hometown of South Bend, Indiana, and take part in an idyllic rite of passage - boarding school. Despite her parents' lack of financial support, she applied to Ault School in Massachusetts and received a scholarship for her
As a graduate of a small, all-women's college, I found many of Lee's experiences very similar: the traditions, hazing rituals, cafeteria food and dorm experiences all seemed like pages from my life history. Attending small, private institutions can be very alluring. Unfortunately, though, for many students, it can turn into a private hell.
High school is tough - the feelings of being left out, socially awkward and trying to second guess everyone's motives weigh down most teenagers. Lee did all this and more. Lee was blessed with a wicked sense of humor but rarely showed it. She had a few good friends but remained aloof with most of her classmates. And when she finally gets the attention of her crush, Lee surrenders herself without a second glance. As I read Lee's story, I commiserated with her plight as a scholarship student in a sea of wealthy kids but frowned at some of her mistakes. Sometimes, Lee was her own worst enemy.
And then I smiled, because that's what being a teenage girl is all about: learning, growing and making mistakes. As Prep concluded, I knew Lee was a better person as a result of her Ault experiences. This story was a great reminder of the journey teenage girls take to become self-sufficient women. If you're a mom to a young girl or a young woman yourself, put Prep high on your reading list. I don't think you'll be disappointed in this enchanting coming of age tale.
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tuition. Prep is the story of Lee's life as a boarding school student - an intriguing look at the socialization of high school students at a prestigious boarding school.As a graduate of a small, all-women's college, I found many of Lee's experiences very similar: the traditions, hazing rituals, cafeteria food and dorm experiences all seemed like pages from my life history. Attending small, private institutions can be very alluring. Unfortunately, though, for many students, it can turn into a private hell.
High school is tough - the feelings of being left out, socially awkward and trying to second guess everyone's motives weigh down most teenagers. Lee did all this and more. Lee was blessed with a wicked sense of humor but rarely showed it. She had a few good friends but remained aloof with most of her classmates. And when she finally gets the attention of her crush, Lee surrenders herself without a second glance. As I read Lee's story, I commiserated with her plight as a scholarship student in a sea of wealthy kids but frowned at some of her mistakes. Sometimes, Lee was her own worst enemy.
And then I smiled, because that's what being a teenage girl is all about: learning, growing and making mistakes. As Prep concluded, I knew Lee was a better person as a result of her Ault experiences. This story was a great reminder of the journey teenage girls take to become self-sufficient women. If you're a mom to a young girl or a young woman yourself, put Prep high on your reading list. I don't think you'll be disappointed in this enchanting coming of age tale.
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LibraryThing member cwicker27
When looking at the cover of Prep, I guessed it to be another quick beach read. I thought it would be a book with little depth and that it would be easy to read. After reading the first chapter of it though, I realized I was mistaken. Prep is a book about a young and awkward girl the age of 14, and
The girl in the book, Lee Fiora, entered into the high school as a teenager who was not 100% comfortable with herself in this new environment. Not only was she surrounded by many people who were much wealthier than she was, but she was under the academic pressure in a private school filled with brilliant young minds. She was unsure of herself in such an environment, and the author goes into depth about this girl.
One of the main themes of the book I discovered to be was growth and change through high school. At the beginning of the book, Lee was not what one would call a confident person. I felt that this was easy to relate to because I was so recently an awkward freshman at Fredericksburg Academy, which is similar to Ault School, which Lee attends, in that it is also a school teeming with the pressure to succeed. As Lee grew up a little through high school, you can see how she became more comfortable with her surroundings. She also became more comfortable with herself, even if that does not mean she was totally confident in the person that she was by the end of high school.
Friendship is another theme that is shown throughout the book. I really enjoyed the way the author presented this aspect of high school because all of it very well represents how things actually are. Lee is a girl with not very many close friends but she has many acquaintances. Her one close friend, Martha, is her roommate and throughout the book they have a pretty steady relationship. They trust each other and they love each other enough to make sacrifices for each other. For instance, in order to keep Lee at the school, Martha helps her cheat on her math exam. Martha had never once cheated before but she was willing to go against her own morals to keep her best friend with her at the school. At one point in the novel Lee tried to make friends by cutting peoples hair. She cut one boy’s hair and soon the word got out to more popular people that Lee could give good haircuts. While Lee thought that she was making new friends and becoming part of the “in” crowd at her school, her best friend advised her to stop doing it because she knew that ultimately these people didn’t want to be around Lee, and that they really just wanted a new haircut. This was interesting to see because it was obvious that Lee wanted to be accepted by her more popular peers, but her best friend who was watching out for her needed to pull her back into reality. This part of the book made me sad because it was hard to see someone struggling this way socially.
The main theme of the book I believe was really just the pressure of being a teenager. Lee was under constant pressure from all directions. She was under pressure from her parents, who wanted her to make them proud by being the person that they wanted her to be. She was under immense pressure from her teachers and her peers to do well academically. There were always students getting into and attending Ivy League universities and it hurt her in the end to know that she was not cut out for these schools like some of her friends were. This was easiest to relate to out of all aspects of the book because I am currently under a lot of pressure to do well so that I can get into a good college. It was interesting feel the way this part of the book made me feel. Also, there was the pressure even to have a boyfriend that Lee was under. She quickly got crushes on boys and imagined herself being with them. She was surrounded by shallow and catty girls that made her feel somewhat inadequate. All of these pressures were not easy to deal with, but these and more are present in most teenagers in schools like these.
I loved this book because of the range of situations that it puts the main character through. Lee almost failed a math class, she lost a friend, got a crush on a guy and later they became “friends with benefits”, she accidentally walked in on one of her ex-roommates with another girl, gets into a huge fight with her parents, and in the end is pretty much exactly where she wants to be. She grew up and got a job and started living a life in which she was confident in. She was able to keep in touch with some old classmates, and was happy with the place she was at in her life. This is an important lesson of the story I think because despite all of the things we go through as teenagers now, ultimately things will work out for us as long as we can keep ourselves together through high school and college. This book epitomizes life as a girl at a private high school, and it was truly an enjoyment to read with its surprising depth and accuracy.
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her life in a prestigious private coeducational boarding school. It goes into detail about her feelings about her life, and the changes she is going through as a young adult. The girl in the book, Lee Fiora, entered into the high school as a teenager who was not 100% comfortable with herself in this new environment. Not only was she surrounded by many people who were much wealthier than she was, but she was under the academic pressure in a private school filled with brilliant young minds. She was unsure of herself in such an environment, and the author goes into depth about this girl.
One of the main themes of the book I discovered to be was growth and change through high school. At the beginning of the book, Lee was not what one would call a confident person. I felt that this was easy to relate to because I was so recently an awkward freshman at Fredericksburg Academy, which is similar to Ault School, which Lee attends, in that it is also a school teeming with the pressure to succeed. As Lee grew up a little through high school, you can see how she became more comfortable with her surroundings. She also became more comfortable with herself, even if that does not mean she was totally confident in the person that she was by the end of high school.
Friendship is another theme that is shown throughout the book. I really enjoyed the way the author presented this aspect of high school because all of it very well represents how things actually are. Lee is a girl with not very many close friends but she has many acquaintances. Her one close friend, Martha, is her roommate and throughout the book they have a pretty steady relationship. They trust each other and they love each other enough to make sacrifices for each other. For instance, in order to keep Lee at the school, Martha helps her cheat on her math exam. Martha had never once cheated before but she was willing to go against her own morals to keep her best friend with her at the school. At one point in the novel Lee tried to make friends by cutting peoples hair. She cut one boy’s hair and soon the word got out to more popular people that Lee could give good haircuts. While Lee thought that she was making new friends and becoming part of the “in” crowd at her school, her best friend advised her to stop doing it because she knew that ultimately these people didn’t want to be around Lee, and that they really just wanted a new haircut. This was interesting to see because it was obvious that Lee wanted to be accepted by her more popular peers, but her best friend who was watching out for her needed to pull her back into reality. This part of the book made me sad because it was hard to see someone struggling this way socially.
The main theme of the book I believe was really just the pressure of being a teenager. Lee was under constant pressure from all directions. She was under pressure from her parents, who wanted her to make them proud by being the person that they wanted her to be. She was under immense pressure from her teachers and her peers to do well academically. There were always students getting into and attending Ivy League universities and it hurt her in the end to know that she was not cut out for these schools like some of her friends were. This was easiest to relate to out of all aspects of the book because I am currently under a lot of pressure to do well so that I can get into a good college. It was interesting feel the way this part of the book made me feel. Also, there was the pressure even to have a boyfriend that Lee was under. She quickly got crushes on boys and imagined herself being with them. She was surrounded by shallow and catty girls that made her feel somewhat inadequate. All of these pressures were not easy to deal with, but these and more are present in most teenagers in schools like these.
I loved this book because of the range of situations that it puts the main character through. Lee almost failed a math class, she lost a friend, got a crush on a guy and later they became “friends with benefits”, she accidentally walked in on one of her ex-roommates with another girl, gets into a huge fight with her parents, and in the end is pretty much exactly where she wants to be. She grew up and got a job and started living a life in which she was confident in. She was able to keep in touch with some old classmates, and was happy with the place she was at in her life. This is an important lesson of the story I think because despite all of the things we go through as teenagers now, ultimately things will work out for us as long as we can keep ourselves together through high school and college. This book epitomizes life as a girl at a private high school, and it was truly an enjoyment to read with its surprising depth and accuracy.
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LibraryThing member dudara
I honestly don't know how I did not see this book until recently. It's gotten great reviews from readers and critics alike, and yet I don't recall seeing it in any bookshop.
Lee Fiora is a scholarship student at Ault, a prestigious East Coast boarding school in USA. The book charts her 4 year
This is a true coming of age novel - but weirldly the character doesn't come of age during the narration of events - it's only by hearing the grown-up narrator's comments that you realise that she has matured. The novel really does capture the yearning for conformity and acceptance that many teenagers struggle with. Ultimately, the main character is a normal person with normal talent and this is her major appeal to the reader.
I've seen critics place this book with Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" - to me this is better. It's more accessible, more down to earth and more honest. Truly recommended.
Lee Fiora is a scholarship student at Ault, a prestigious East Coast boarding school in USA. The book charts her 4 year
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journey of self-discovery at Ault, but the glorious part of her self-discovery is contained in the fact that that main character is narrating the events many years after they happen. Experience allows her to look back on her teenage self and see the events for what they truly were.This is a true coming of age novel - but weirldly the character doesn't come of age during the narration of events - it's only by hearing the grown-up narrator's comments that you realise that she has matured. The novel really does capture the yearning for conformity and acceptance that many teenagers struggle with. Ultimately, the main character is a normal person with normal talent and this is her major appeal to the reader.
I've seen critics place this book with Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" - to me this is better. It's more accessible, more down to earth and more honest. Truly recommended.
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LibraryThing member PandorasRequiem
Anyone who felt out of sorts or misunderstood during high school can identify with this type of novel. Lee Fiora is a Mid-Westerner on scholarship to a prestigious prep school in New England. She lacks the social graces, the preen and polish of the elite and wealthy of her school and soon realizes
She doesn't mesh well at all with the situation at hand, and her neuroses, sometimes endearing and sometimes unnerving, are put under a microscope. When all is said is done though, isn't that what angst is really all about? Not "fitting in", not really knowing why or why not, or if you even want to? Those turbulent high school adolescent and teenage years are all about discovery, and Lee takes us through the jumbled mess in an open, honest sense of candor that is reminiscent of those high school years we all spiralled through.
it is a deeply poignant narrative, and i found myself readily identifying with the plights of the protagonist. Both her tragedies and triumphs ache with the two-edged sword of meeting your reflection in a mirror and knowing that, although the image may change from time to time, it is always the truth that is reflected back to you over the years.
4 stars.
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that the most obvious things are the ones you don't talk about.She doesn't mesh well at all with the situation at hand, and her neuroses, sometimes endearing and sometimes unnerving, are put under a microscope. When all is said is done though, isn't that what angst is really all about? Not "fitting in", not really knowing why or why not, or if you even want to? Those turbulent high school adolescent and teenage years are all about discovery, and Lee takes us through the jumbled mess in an open, honest sense of candor that is reminiscent of those high school years we all spiralled through.
it is a deeply poignant narrative, and i found myself readily identifying with the plights of the protagonist. Both her tragedies and triumphs ache with the two-edged sword of meeting your reflection in a mirror and knowing that, although the image may change from time to time, it is always the truth that is reflected back to you over the years.
4 stars.
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LibraryThing member livebug
Certain books are stressful to me. I don't mean the content (like global warming or politics), or some deadline for finishing (like for an exam or book club). I mean they elicit from me a visceral, adrenaline-like reaction that makes it both troubling to continue and impossible to stop reading.
Few
That's right, a book about boarding school. This was a quick book -- I read it in about two days, but what a rough two days they were! If you ever think about revisiting your sorry self in high school -- especially if your sorry self did a lot of skulking and over-thinking and trying to be brazen and unique, but also conformist to the point of invisibility at the same time -- this here's the book for you.
My public high school in suburban CT was preppy enough that a lot of this rang true, but more than the prep-school satire was the biting accuracy of just being fifteen and not being able to do things right. I couldn't sleep both nights I was reading this; my mind was just churning over memories of emotions I haven't felt in over a decade. A true read, but not a fun one.
Few
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books do this. The Corrections was one (and boy was that a bummer reading choice for the romantic getaway weekend at Fitzpatrick Winery: No romance, no getaway, just me all upset by my book). This book was another.That's right, a book about boarding school. This was a quick book -- I read it in about two days, but what a rough two days they were! If you ever think about revisiting your sorry self in high school -- especially if your sorry self did a lot of skulking and over-thinking and trying to be brazen and unique, but also conformist to the point of invisibility at the same time -- this here's the book for you.
My public high school in suburban CT was preppy enough that a lot of this rang true, but more than the prep-school satire was the biting accuracy of just being fifteen and not being able to do things right. I couldn't sleep both nights I was reading this; my mind was just churning over memories of emotions I haven't felt in over a decade. A true read, but not a fun one.
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LibraryThing member wiremonkey
It is that time of year again, the time of year when I gravitate towards book that punch me in the gut. Either because the character is so palpable I feel like I know them intimately (A Complicated Kindness), or because the book introduces me to so many new and beautiful ideas I want to spend more
Prep by Curtis Sittenfield is a different story. Told from the perspective of Lee Fiora, a young girl who gets a scholarship to a fancy boarding school, this book hurled me into the murkiest, most devastating waters of my own adolescence. No- I never got a scholarship, or ended up at a fancy boarding school, though the high school I went to for the last couple of years of my secondary education was quite a bit like Beverley HIlls 9021, but the friendly Canadian version.
It is Lee’s complete lack of self-confidence. Actually, it is deeper than lack of self-confidence, lower even, to nigh self-annihilation.
Actually, even writing this hurts. I never realized it until I recognized it in Lee’s character, but I spent my whole teenage years just assuming that I was not worth knowing. Therefore, why would people want to hang out with me? Why would anybody like me? I best not foist myself on people- that would be unkind. Better to leave them alone. Stay in my little corner. Never ever put myself out there.
Like Lee in the book, I had a family that loved me (loves me still I am pretty sure but you can’t be really sure of anything, can you?) I had everything I needed- lived a comfortable middle-class existence in a beautiful little town. No, all my problems as a teenager were completely self-inflicted. I don’t know what happened to me. I don’t know if something happens in the brains of certain teenage girls, some sort of chemical imbalance that makes them think they are not worth the space they take up in the world. I know it is not every girl- my sisters most definitely had no problem taking up space. Most sane people don’t even question it.
So encountering a character who never sits at a table of her peers because she assumes they don’t want to talk to her, or if someone does talk to her, say like the cute boy she has been crushing on since the beginning of time, it must be out of pity. (This scenario leads to one of the most devastating parts of the book. I’m not going to tell you. You have to read it for yourself.)
I made a lot of mistakes in my life. And I am realizing now that a lot of the ones I made during my adolescent and young adult life stem from these terrible, self-hating assumptions. Regrets for not having participated in the world around me as much as I could have, or wanted to. Regrets with people I loved and couldn’t see how they could love me back and consequently making some devastatingly stupid mistakes.
I wish I could say that as an adult it is better, that like the case of adolescent acne, it has cleared away. Well, yes and no. Every time I am in a social gathering, my instinct is to not talk to anybody. Whatever I do, I shouldn’t foist my presence on other people. I must wait for people to come talk to me. But when they do, I always wonder if it is out of pity.
That is my first instinct. Luckily it is as faded as my acne scars, palpably there but easy to ignore.
As for the book itself, it is worth reading. Lee Fiora is up there with Nomi Nickel from A Complicated Kindness, Baby from Lullabies for Little Criminals and yes, even my first love, that ubiquitous comparison, Mr. Holden Caulfield. She is funny, smart, and so tragically flawed I wanted to simultaneously take her in my arms and shake some sense into her. Now that I think about it, that was probably how my mom felt…
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time than I have sifting through them, examining them (The Dispossessed). And then there are the books that are so close to my own experience I feel exposed somehow, naked in front of the author. Among Others was one book like that. But the part of me that felt exposed was the lonely, reading me, an aspect of myself that I have long embraced.Prep by Curtis Sittenfield is a different story. Told from the perspective of Lee Fiora, a young girl who gets a scholarship to a fancy boarding school, this book hurled me into the murkiest, most devastating waters of my own adolescence. No- I never got a scholarship, or ended up at a fancy boarding school, though the high school I went to for the last couple of years of my secondary education was quite a bit like Beverley HIlls 9021, but the friendly Canadian version.
It is Lee’s complete lack of self-confidence. Actually, it is deeper than lack of self-confidence, lower even, to nigh self-annihilation.
Actually, even writing this hurts. I never realized it until I recognized it in Lee’s character, but I spent my whole teenage years just assuming that I was not worth knowing. Therefore, why would people want to hang out with me? Why would anybody like me? I best not foist myself on people- that would be unkind. Better to leave them alone. Stay in my little corner. Never ever put myself out there.
Like Lee in the book, I had a family that loved me (loves me still I am pretty sure but you can’t be really sure of anything, can you?) I had everything I needed- lived a comfortable middle-class existence in a beautiful little town. No, all my problems as a teenager were completely self-inflicted. I don’t know what happened to me. I don’t know if something happens in the brains of certain teenage girls, some sort of chemical imbalance that makes them think they are not worth the space they take up in the world. I know it is not every girl- my sisters most definitely had no problem taking up space. Most sane people don’t even question it.
So encountering a character who never sits at a table of her peers because she assumes they don’t want to talk to her, or if someone does talk to her, say like the cute boy she has been crushing on since the beginning of time, it must be out of pity. (This scenario leads to one of the most devastating parts of the book. I’m not going to tell you. You have to read it for yourself.)
I made a lot of mistakes in my life. And I am realizing now that a lot of the ones I made during my adolescent and young adult life stem from these terrible, self-hating assumptions. Regrets for not having participated in the world around me as much as I could have, or wanted to. Regrets with people I loved and couldn’t see how they could love me back and consequently making some devastatingly stupid mistakes.
I wish I could say that as an adult it is better, that like the case of adolescent acne, it has cleared away. Well, yes and no. Every time I am in a social gathering, my instinct is to not talk to anybody. Whatever I do, I shouldn’t foist my presence on other people. I must wait for people to come talk to me. But when they do, I always wonder if it is out of pity.
That is my first instinct. Luckily it is as faded as my acne scars, palpably there but easy to ignore.
As for the book itself, it is worth reading. Lee Fiora is up there with Nomi Nickel from A Complicated Kindness, Baby from Lullabies for Little Criminals and yes, even my first love, that ubiquitous comparison, Mr. Holden Caulfield. She is funny, smart, and so tragically flawed I wanted to simultaneously take her in my arms and shake some sense into her. Now that I think about it, that was probably how my mom felt…
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LibraryThing member stephxsu
Ault School is a typical boarding school—moneyed students subtly flaunt their comfort socioeconomic position while trading sexual favors as black-market currency. For the Midwestern scholarship student Lee Fiora, Ault’s society is intimidating, stifling, in a way. This forces Lee, who comes
PREP documents Lee’s inferiority complex, strange friendships, unadmirable behavior, and unhealthy obsession—and, later, her taboo relationship—with her grade’s most popular guy, Cross Sugarman. Curtis Sittenfeld writes with unapologetic prose in the language of an insecure teenage girl on the fringe of her intimidating class. Lee is far from being a favored protagonist—certainly I have wanted to slap her for her passive behavior more than one occasion—but PREP is an interestingly detailed look into the lives of boarding school students.
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from an exuberant and humorous family, to avoid most social interaction, instead becoming a picky observer of her fellow classmates.PREP documents Lee’s inferiority complex, strange friendships, unadmirable behavior, and unhealthy obsession—and, later, her taboo relationship—with her grade’s most popular guy, Cross Sugarman. Curtis Sittenfeld writes with unapologetic prose in the language of an insecure teenage girl on the fringe of her intimidating class. Lee is far from being a favored protagonist—certainly I have wanted to slap her for her passive behavior more than one occasion—but PREP is an interestingly detailed look into the lives of boarding school students.
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LibraryThing member anna_battista
Rarely have I disliked a novel with such violence. I think the main reason for this was disappointment. I often read books that I know I'm going to hate (e.g. anything by Stephenie Meyer or Emily Giffin), and I know I'm going to hate them because their themes get my back up. Sometimes it's good to
So I read the blurb at the back of 'Prep' and thought, 'I'm going to love this, or at the very least enjoy it'. Sadly it wasn't to be. A hundred pages in I realised I was not enjoying that book at all and that on the contrary it was infuriating me. I kept going, hoping it would get better but it just got worse. When I finally finished it I would happily have ripped it in two, except I don't do that to books. Blame it on my librarian training.
What do I pin the blame on? Or where do I start? I don't know, probably with Lee herself. It takes magnificent skill from a writer to make you follow an unlikeable narrator/main character with interest. Daphne du Maurier does a superb job of it 'My cousin Rachel', and Alan Hollinghurst truly impressed me with Nick in 'The line of beauty'. Although not a narrator, Nick is the perspective we have to go with in that novel, and I think his example is relevant here as like Lee he is the odd one out trying (and failing) to carve his place in a social class way above his own. Well, clearly Curtis Sittenfeld is no Hollinghurst, not even a little bit. A little bit would have been better than what she gave us with Lee.
Lee has nothing to say, yet she manages to fill more than 400 pages with thorough explorations of her uninteresting navel. NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. She is cold, selfish, unappreciative, self-obsessed, SO FUCKING SHALLOW. There is literaly nothing to her. She might go unnoticed but what is there to notice? All she talks about is herself and how others affect her/how she appears to others, it's her her her all the time. If at least there were a few interesting observations, descriptions of what she likes... But it seems all she can talk about is nothing, a whole lot of nothing. I was hoping that at some point there would be some mention of what she's studying and how she finds her subjects, how she sees her life evolving from school, but the only thing she seems to care about is how she looks to others, what they think of her and how she can be popular. She is such a nasty jealous person as well, horrible to her family and to the friends who inexplicably stick with her... I found it exhausting and infuriating. The only moment I felt any satisfaction was when her father slapped her.
The style sank this sorry mess even further in my opinion. A good writer would have made the reader see Lee exactly for what she is but still want to read about her. If anything Sittenfeld's style seriously put me off. Any attempts at depth fell flat - for example the bit where Lee is reprimanded by her English teacher for not showing enough passion and she thinks to herself that she feels everything too intensely. Well, sorry Curtis but none of that intensity actually reached the page. Lee's existential musings never sounded genuine or insightful, just self-involved, petty and narrow. The succession of cliches sometimes made my jaw hang open in disbelief. The one that stays with me is the bit about Sin-Jun being an obvious lesbian because she has short hair and ear piercings. Seriously? We're still there, are we? Sorry, I thought this was the 21st century. My mistake. There were plenty more cliches too, it wasn't an isolated incident. There's no excuse for that when you're trying to be all literary and deep. Speaking of, the literary devices in there were so heavy and clunky I cringed. The amount of 'in fact' used to no effect, the endless questions of 'am I like this?', 'is this that?', 'why this?' became so tiresome I wanted to scream, the fact that every single time there seemed to be something happening the narrative cut to another pointless anecdote or flashback or musing frustrated me no end...
The best thing about this book? It ended. I won't be reading any of Curtis Sittenfeld's other novels.
(cross-posted to Goodreads)
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hate. With 'Prep' though, I was expecting to fall in love. Give me teenagers at boarding school, especially when the main character is the outsider, and I'm won over. 'Friendly fire', 'Harry Potter', 'The catcher in the rye' are just a few of the books that have a special place in my heart thanks to their treatment of the 'teen in institutionalised education' theme. So I read the blurb at the back of 'Prep' and thought, 'I'm going to love this, or at the very least enjoy it'. Sadly it wasn't to be. A hundred pages in I realised I was not enjoying that book at all and that on the contrary it was infuriating me. I kept going, hoping it would get better but it just got worse. When I finally finished it I would happily have ripped it in two, except I don't do that to books. Blame it on my librarian training.
What do I pin the blame on? Or where do I start? I don't know, probably with Lee herself. It takes magnificent skill from a writer to make you follow an unlikeable narrator/main character with interest. Daphne du Maurier does a superb job of it 'My cousin Rachel', and Alan Hollinghurst truly impressed me with Nick in 'The line of beauty'. Although not a narrator, Nick is the perspective we have to go with in that novel, and I think his example is relevant here as like Lee he is the odd one out trying (and failing) to carve his place in a social class way above his own. Well, clearly Curtis Sittenfeld is no Hollinghurst, not even a little bit. A little bit would have been better than what she gave us with Lee.
Lee has nothing to say, yet she manages to fill more than 400 pages with thorough explorations of her uninteresting navel. NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. She is cold, selfish, unappreciative, self-obsessed, SO FUCKING SHALLOW. There is literaly nothing to her. She might go unnoticed but what is there to notice? All she talks about is herself and how others affect her/how she appears to others, it's her her her all the time. If at least there were a few interesting observations, descriptions of what she likes... But it seems all she can talk about is nothing, a whole lot of nothing. I was hoping that at some point there would be some mention of what she's studying and how she finds her subjects, how she sees her life evolving from school, but the only thing she seems to care about is how she looks to others, what they think of her and how she can be popular. She is such a nasty jealous person as well, horrible to her family and to the friends who inexplicably stick with her... I found it exhausting and infuriating. The only moment I felt any satisfaction was when her father slapped her.
The style sank this sorry mess even further in my opinion. A good writer would have made the reader see Lee exactly for what she is but still want to read about her. If anything Sittenfeld's style seriously put me off. Any attempts at depth fell flat - for example the bit where Lee is reprimanded by her English teacher for not showing enough passion and she thinks to herself that she feels everything too intensely. Well, sorry Curtis but none of that intensity actually reached the page. Lee's existential musings never sounded genuine or insightful, just self-involved, petty and narrow. The succession of cliches sometimes made my jaw hang open in disbelief. The one that stays with me is the bit about Sin-Jun being an obvious lesbian because she has short hair and ear piercings. Seriously? We're still there, are we? Sorry, I thought this was the 21st century. My mistake. There were plenty more cliches too, it wasn't an isolated incident. There's no excuse for that when you're trying to be all literary and deep. Speaking of, the literary devices in there were so heavy and clunky I cringed. The amount of 'in fact' used to no effect, the endless questions of 'am I like this?', 'is this that?', 'why this?' became so tiresome I wanted to scream, the fact that every single time there seemed to be something happening the narrative cut to another pointless anecdote or flashback or musing frustrated me no end...
The best thing about this book? It ended. I won't be reading any of Curtis Sittenfeld's other novels.
(cross-posted to Goodreads)
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LibraryThing member alanna1122
Having attended a Massachusetts boarding school around the time that Prep is set - I really felt that much of Lee's experience was shockingly familiar to mine. Sittenfeld's attention to the details of everyday boarding school life made me love this book. She got the atmosphere (for the most part)
The only weak part of this book was the final big plot event. I thought it was an unnecessary complication too late in the book.
I read some of the other reviews of this book written by people who didn't find Lee a sympathetic character - it's funny because in another book I would have hated her lack of backbone... but given her age and her vulnerable position of being so far away from home and in such a strange (to her) environment - I found her believable and I understood - however painfully - why she was the was she was.
In any case - I loved this book!
I thought it was an amazingly authentic story - one of my favorite reads in a while.
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just right. For me, this book - (minus the particular drama of Lee's everyday life) was like a huge trip down memory lane... The only weak part of this book was the final big plot event. I thought it was an unnecessary complication too late in the book.
I read some of the other reviews of this book written by people who didn't find Lee a sympathetic character - it's funny because in another book I would have hated her lack of backbone... but given her age and her vulnerable position of being so far away from home and in such a strange (to her) environment - I found her believable and I understood - however painfully - why she was the was she was.
In any case - I loved this book!
I thought it was an amazingly authentic story - one of my favorite reads in a while.
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LibraryThing member whiting
This was great! It is a fabulously painful and entertaining account of boarding school. Many of the descriptions of how the protagonist feels transcend high school angst -- for example, "Generally, my fear relied on the hypothetical, and an actual specific consequence, any consequence at all,
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nearly always seemed less severe than whatever amorphous series of events I'd felt the need to guard against." Enjoy! Show Less
LibraryThing member Safarr
This book hit disturbingly close to home for me. The story rings true for most high schoolers. Although it is more intense than many people's school experience, the basic elements are still there. Most of all the alientation and desperate need for acceptance and love are something everyone can
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relate to, and the pain of adolescence is exposed painfully in this novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member funnyface
Not only was this book hilarious with every page, but it kept me up into the late hours of the night reading! I wish I were just starting this book because it made its way to the top of my favorites very quickly!
LibraryThing member CasualFriday
Scholarship kid Lee Fiora survives four year at an elite New England boarding school She is full of self doubt, has trouble with her school work, and obsesses over a popular boy. Lee's self-consciousness is excruciating. My heart breaks at the way she assumes herself out of relationships with most
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of her peers: she assumes she's boring, she assumes that no one wants to talk to her. Sittenfeld's voice is pitch-perfect. She's got the adolescent thing down; she's got the prep thing down. (Full disclosure: I was a morose scholarship kid at a prep school). Show Less
LibraryThing member amysical
I found Prep quite an easy read, and by saying that I don't mean any disrespect to Curtis Sittenfeld. I just felt that this book read like a movie. We follow the protagonist Lee through her years at Ault, a prestigious boarding school. She struggles through problems most of us faced during high
I believe Sittenfeld does a good job detailing the struggles faced by most high school students. I don't believe you need to be, or have been, a boarding school student to feel Lee's pain. I can't help but feel that the story is all too common though. There is nothing particularly different about Lee's story, it's not very original or different.
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school, such as the quest for love and understanding, a place of belonging in the world, and approval from her peers. I believe Sittenfeld does a good job detailing the struggles faced by most high school students. I don't believe you need to be, or have been, a boarding school student to feel Lee's pain. I can't help but feel that the story is all too common though. There is nothing particularly different about Lee's story, it's not very original or different.
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LibraryThing member callmecayce
I did not really like this novel, and I think it's for a number of reasons. One of them is that I spoiled myself by reading Looking for Alaska first. John Green's book is a brilliant look at boarding school life and it's both elegantly written and profoundly heartbreaking. Prep is none of those
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things, and for that reason alone it was a disappointment. But I think, even more than that, it was Sittenfeld's writing style that turned me off. I did not like how the book was written in such a way that you knew things would turn out all right (maybe not immediately, but eventually) because the story was being told from the point of view of an adult. Often, this is well done and I've read several books over the past year that handle this quite well. I think Sittenfeld tried too hard to get us to care about his characters, but I didn't feel anything buy annoyed. I think that if he'd written it differently, with a different tone, I might have liked it, but the only reason I finished it is because I was curious about what big event charged so much of the narrator's telling of the story. And, again, it was just another letdown. Perhaps I shouldn't use John Green's writing (and writing style) as a comparison to Sittenfeld's, but I can't seem to help it. Prep was a mildly entertaining way to spend a few days of reading, but I have no desire to read it again -- or anything else by Sittenfeld. Show Less
LibraryThing member TinaV95
All in all, I liked Prep, but became frustrated with Lee throughout the book. I think that is because I identified with her on several levels... I didn't attend boarding school, but went to a very small Christian school and was the dreaded 'teacher's kid'. I also went to a small women's college (on
Psychoanalysis welcomed (hahaha)....
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scholarship like Lee) and found her discussions on dorm and campus life quite reminiscent of my own experiences. But I wanted to LOVE Lee as a character. I rooted for her -- I wanted her to grow and become a different person. I saw so many similarities to my angst filled teen years of insecurity (and I'm sure to many other teen girls) and I was expecting / hoping her struggles would lead to a different ending. While I found her to be an interesting and likeable character at times, at other times I wanted to scream at the book... Maybe I was a bit too involved?? ;)Psychoanalysis welcomed (hahaha)....
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LibraryThing member ashwey
This book didn't resonate at all with my high school experience, so I really had a hard time with it. I understand all the comparisons to Catcher in the Rye, but I didn't find the main character as likeable as Holden Caulfield.
LibraryThing member ChicGeekGirl21
Finally, a book that doesn't force you to like the characters. No one is a hero or a villain here, which makes Prep more life-like than many other books of its kind.
LibraryThing member SqueakyChu
Lee is a teenager from Indiana who persuades her parents to send her to Ault, a New England prep school, instead of her hometown high school. Her expectations of a boarding school and the realities of it were quite different. A feeling of being uncertain and awkward pervades this book...not unlike
This detailed and highly realistic book captures teen angst quite accurately. It’s a fun, yet sometimes heartbreaking, rendering of Lee’s high school years away from home. For me, high school was something I experienced over 40 years ago, but, by reading this book, I was brought back to many of the feelings I harbored back then. I was struck by the author's detailed prose which covered four years (and over 400 pages) of Lee's high school years without my even once losing interest in the story.
Although I attended public high school, my daughter attended private high school (having graduated 1 1/2 years ago). I could really understand what the author way trying to say about such things as Lee's feeling anxious among both girls and guys, being embarrassed at her parent's cluelessness, worry about a family's background, and the stress of a crush. Reading this book seemed like a composite of both my and my daughter's high school years (as only I could interpret both). A fabulous read!
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the feelings of most teen girls in high school. I was amazed by the intensity of emotion this book evoked in me. In reading of Lee’s experiences, I could very frequently remember some of my oddly embarrassing moments in high school. Chapters which I found most interesting were (1) Lee’s parents visiting her school on Parent’s Day, (3) Lee’s fumbling attempts at mastering Math and her tutor Aubrey’s not sensing her difficulty but rather developing an attachment to her and (2) Lee’s sexual encounters with Cross and the hopes she had pinned on it.This detailed and highly realistic book captures teen angst quite accurately. It’s a fun, yet sometimes heartbreaking, rendering of Lee’s high school years away from home. For me, high school was something I experienced over 40 years ago, but, by reading this book, I was brought back to many of the feelings I harbored back then. I was struck by the author's detailed prose which covered four years (and over 400 pages) of Lee's high school years without my even once losing interest in the story.
Although I attended public high school, my daughter attended private high school (having graduated 1 1/2 years ago). I could really understand what the author way trying to say about such things as Lee's feeling anxious among both girls and guys, being embarrassed at her parent's cluelessness, worry about a family's background, and the stress of a crush. Reading this book seemed like a composite of both my and my daughter's high school years (as only I could interpret both). A fabulous read!
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LibraryThing member lycomayflower
Middle-class, Midwestern Lee applies to a boarding school in Massachusetts and is awarded a scholarship. But Lee's background and her own insecurities make her feel like an outsider at school and she spends much of her time there miserable and hiding who she is. Prep is a compelling read largely
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because the portrayal of an insecure high school student rings so true. The writing and plot pulled me along at a fairly good clip, though by the mid-point I was growing tired of Lee's insecurities. That Lee never quite fits in (and that she never learns to be okay with that)--even after making friends--is probably realistic, but it made the middle 150 pages of the novel drag. I muttered at Lee a lot: "Time to grow up now, Lee. Time to transcend all the nonsense now, Lee." That she never does is either a flaw in the novel or a brave choice on the part of the author (the book is perhaps as much an exploration of the ways class and race function in Lee's upper-class boarding school as it is just the story of Lee's adolescence, and as such, the particular ways Lee fails to transcend the nonsense are important). Prep turned out to be a more significant read than I expected it to be, but it was also less satisfying than I had hoped. Show Less
LibraryThing member iwriteinbooks
In an alternate universe, Tom Wolfe’s Charlotte Simmons was born in Indiana and wrote her story from prep school instead of college. Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep is so similar to Wolfe’s novel, I had to keep flipping to the front cover to make sure that I wasn’t rereading it.
The stories are
The commentary on class division and social culture wars are similar and the self doubt is rampant through both. Prep sings a slightly more authentic tune as it takes place over the course of four years versus Wolfe’s one, fleshing out characters and allowing the observer to watch Lee grow out of some of the crippling social anxiety she had when she arrived at school.
I think that my biggest problem with the “shy girl goes to school” issue is that both Lee and Charlotte are so completely disarmed by their own insecurities that neither study rings true as teenage angst but rather manifests as a deeper, more serious social disorder and I found myself less sympathetic and more concerned.
Now, this may be because I am fairly extroverted and while i was never the head cheerleader or my sorority president, I have very rarely been a true wall flower. Perhaps both novels are accurate portrayals of shy students. In Lee’s case, though, her loner habits appeared after her arrival at Ault so it seems less likely that she would really go from a happy social girl at her public high school to a serious recluse.
I think the other problem is that while I enjoyed the cultural commentary and the level of mockery at Society’s expense, it comes at a bad time. Prep was published in the year between The O.C. and Gossip Girl, two successful tales of a youth out of water, scooped out of lower middle class obscurity to observe and dissect the pleasures and perils of the wild elite. Certainly the waiting public never gets tired of the political Cinderella story but it does seem that the market is a bit saturated at the moment or was at the moment when Prep arrived.
All of this in mind, had I not read Charlotte Simmons or had I shied away from my T.V. over the last five years, I think that I would rave about Prep. While it has several notable flaws, the writing is not one and I think that given a different subject matter, I would definitely pick up something else by Sittenfeld. Don’t over look this book but do keep in mind that it is nothing to write home about on the administration letter head.
The stories are
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slightly different in paper work, mostly in that Lee, the story teller in Sittenfeld’s novel is thirteen when she decides to go to New England for boarding school and Charlotte is 18 when she leaves her rural southern town for a Duke-like campus. Both girls leave lower middle class homes in relative obscurity where they had been the top of their class. They soon find themselves in the middle of academic and financial excess, completely out of their element. Instead of thriving in the environments presented, both flounder to the point of self destruction.The commentary on class division and social culture wars are similar and the self doubt is rampant through both. Prep sings a slightly more authentic tune as it takes place over the course of four years versus Wolfe’s one, fleshing out characters and allowing the observer to watch Lee grow out of some of the crippling social anxiety she had when she arrived at school.
I think that my biggest problem with the “shy girl goes to school” issue is that both Lee and Charlotte are so completely disarmed by their own insecurities that neither study rings true as teenage angst but rather manifests as a deeper, more serious social disorder and I found myself less sympathetic and more concerned.
Now, this may be because I am fairly extroverted and while i was never the head cheerleader or my sorority president, I have very rarely been a true wall flower. Perhaps both novels are accurate portrayals of shy students. In Lee’s case, though, her loner habits appeared after her arrival at Ault so it seems less likely that she would really go from a happy social girl at her public high school to a serious recluse.
I think the other problem is that while I enjoyed the cultural commentary and the level of mockery at Society’s expense, it comes at a bad time. Prep was published in the year between The O.C. and Gossip Girl, two successful tales of a youth out of water, scooped out of lower middle class obscurity to observe and dissect the pleasures and perils of the wild elite. Certainly the waiting public never gets tired of the political Cinderella story but it does seem that the market is a bit saturated at the moment or was at the moment when Prep arrived.
All of this in mind, had I not read Charlotte Simmons or had I shied away from my T.V. over the last five years, I think that I would rave about Prep. While it has several notable flaws, the writing is not one and I think that given a different subject matter, I would definitely pick up something else by Sittenfeld. Don’t over look this book but do keep in mind that it is nothing to write home about on the administration letter head.
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LibraryThing member Airin61
An entertaining look at prep school life, but it needs editing. Way too long, the main character's whining and complaining got on my nerves about half way through.
LibraryThing member booklover3258
It was an ok book. I did not like the main character. At first when I started reading the book, I thought Lee was just shy starting a new boarding school, but throughout the book she was not shy but preferred not to interact on a personal basis with most of her classmates and her "boyfriend". The
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ending was a little disappointing, I would've liked to known how Lee turned out after school, instead of her classmates. What was her occupation and how is her love life?? Too many unanswered questions. Show Less
LibraryThing member bobbieharv
One of the best books I've read in a long long time - so good I brought it home from Australia; so well-written everything else pales by comparison. Perfect pitch about an adolescent girl who doesn't quite fit in, and is so self-aware about it.
LibraryThing member pwagner
Story of growing up. Related to my experiences in college and my daughter's also.
Subjects
Awards
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2006)
Language
Original publication date
2005-01-11
Physical description
7.72 inches
ISBN
0330441272 / 9780330441278
Local notes
14yo Lee Fiora starts at theprestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. 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.
Interesting, but not gripping.
Interesting, but not gripping.