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Review
Knocks spots off Tom Wolfe -- Metro
She is a narrator exquisitely attuned to nuance..Prep, in short, is not a preparatory work but a highly accomplished novel -- Independent on Sunday
Sittenfield writes with confidence, her dialogue rings true, and her observations range from witty to surprisingly funny, sometimes absurd. -- Herald
a straightforward, serious, funny book...i liked the book so much. -- London Review of Books
funny..witty and captures all the angst, ambition and mood-swings of the adolescent. A must for teenages and former teenagers. -- Western Daily Press
highly recommended by trendy American literati..writing is fresh and vivid and the subject is uiversal...extremely enjoyable.. -- The Sunday Timea
incisive account of an unhappy adolescence..exposes the artificility of a community that fails to compensate for lack of family love -- Guardian
She is a narrator exquisitely attuned to nuance..Prep, in short, is not a preparatory work but a highly accomplished novel -- Independent on Sunday
Sittenfield writes with confidence, her dialogue rings true, and her observations range from witty to surprisingly funny, sometimes absurd. -- Herald
a straightforward, serious, funny book...i liked the book so much. -- London Review of Books
funny..witty and captures all the angst, ambition and mood-swings of the adolescent. A must for teenages and former teenagers. -- Western Daily Press
highly recommended by trendy American literati..writing is fresh and vivid and the subject is uiversal...extremely enjoyable.. -- The Sunday Timea
incisive account of an unhappy adolescence..exposes the artificility of a community that fails to compensate for lack of family love -- Guardian
Book Description
Orange Prize shortlisted first novel by the phenomenal word-of-mouth bestselling author of American Wife, now republished in Black Swan
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I think that everything, or at least the part of everything that happened to me, started with the Roman architecture mix-up. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
I think that everything, or at least the part of everything that happened to me, started with the Roman architecture mix-up. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By Clear Smith
Format:Paperback
Although set in an American boarding school, Prep captures the insular nature of any school environment with precision and a truthfulness which leaves you aching.
Lee Fiora a scholarship student at Ault, a prestigious East Coast boarding school, feels like an outsider from the beginning of her time there. The book shows you her development throughout her four years and shows her grappling with everyday problems. However, the book is not mundane in any respect, it conveys her insecurities, her need to always remain distant and somewhat detached. The questions she raises are perhaps those which any teenager might ask, what is her place in her insular society, where does she fit in and how?
What makes this book particularly interesting is the fact that Lee is narrating the incidents sometime after she has left Ault, thus she is able to relay these episodes with hindsight, and she is able to see more clearly the intensity and importance placed on them, an intensity which may seem unecessary when you step out of the school environment and see it in relation to the world at large. But it is also the intensity of these incidents which ring true, the fact that in such a small, close-knit school society, and perhaps because of the age of the students these incidents become life or death...
If you can get past the ridiculous names; Cross, Darden, Horton, Gates are but a few, then you will find a brilliantly written book that might leave you nostalgic for the innocence, naievity and purity of emotion which come from being a teenager.
Lee Fiora a scholarship student at Ault, a prestigious East Coast boarding school, feels like an outsider from the beginning of her time there. The book shows you her development throughout her four years and shows her grappling with everyday problems. However, the book is not mundane in any respect, it conveys her insecurities, her need to always remain distant and somewhat detached. The questions she raises are perhaps those which any teenager might ask, what is her place in her insular society, where does she fit in and how?
What makes this book particularly interesting is the fact that Lee is narrating the incidents sometime after she has left Ault, thus she is able to relay these episodes with hindsight, and she is able to see more clearly the intensity and importance placed on them, an intensity which may seem unecessary when you step out of the school environment and see it in relation to the world at large. But it is also the intensity of these incidents which ring true, the fact that in such a small, close-knit school society, and perhaps because of the age of the students these incidents become life or death...
If you can get past the ridiculous names; Cross, Darden, Horton, Gates are but a few, then you will find a brilliantly written book that might leave you nostalgic for the innocence, naievity and purity of emotion which come from being a teenager.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Cymbaline
Format:Paperback
I picked up this book expecting it to be a rather light read and was pleasantly surprised to find it much more than that... at least at first.
The story is told from the point of view of Lee, a "lower middle class scholarship" student at a prestigious prep school in New England. Lee is fairly average in every way and spends much of her time over analysing relatively normal social exchanges.
I was enthralled up until about half way through when I started to get slightly irritated. It was as if the author couldn't decide what they wanted to write about, fish out of water? Journey of self discovery? Coming of age? Racial issues? Class segregation? All are touch upon with various degrees of sensitivity but none are explored in any meaningful way. The deeper themes of the book mainly; race, class and isolation are at first skilfully woven into the narrative but sadly around the halfway mark the author decides he doesn't trust us to understand and starts to clumsily spell it out for us.
Although the story is written in retrospect the voice is very young. Lee is apathetic to life's larger questions, she doesn't consider her actions and consequences too deeply and is very silly when it comes to boys. Lee is written very convincingly but here is the problem... she's dull. Really dull. The girl is terminally boring and although this is a realistic portrayal of a lot of teenagers it doesn't make good reading. Even in her more emotional moments such as her horrible behaviour towards her working class parents when they visit for "parents weekend" Lee is dull, she acts like a brat but the scene evokes no more than an eye roll as Lee isn't even interesting enough to be unlike-able.
The other major problem with the book is that nothing happens, you keep expecting it to and at times it nearly does... but not quite. People drift in and out of Lees life but we forget the characters as quickly as she does. It's as if the author didn't want to sully his work with such vulgar things as plot and character development.
This is my first Amazon review, although it seems scathing it's only because the writing has so much potential. If the book was half the length, if something actually happened, if older Lee had more insight and developed more than her teenage self, if any one of the books themes were expanded upon enough to make us reflect than this book could have been beautiful.
The story is told from the point of view of Lee, a "lower middle class scholarship" student at a prestigious prep school in New England. Lee is fairly average in every way and spends much of her time over analysing relatively normal social exchanges.
I was enthralled up until about half way through when I started to get slightly irritated. It was as if the author couldn't decide what they wanted to write about, fish out of water? Journey of self discovery? Coming of age? Racial issues? Class segregation? All are touch upon with various degrees of sensitivity but none are explored in any meaningful way. The deeper themes of the book mainly; race, class and isolation are at first skilfully woven into the narrative but sadly around the halfway mark the author decides he doesn't trust us to understand and starts to clumsily spell it out for us.
Although the story is written in retrospect the voice is very young. Lee is apathetic to life's larger questions, she doesn't consider her actions and consequences too deeply and is very silly when it comes to boys. Lee is written very convincingly but here is the problem... she's dull. Really dull. The girl is terminally boring and although this is a realistic portrayal of a lot of teenagers it doesn't make good reading. Even in her more emotional moments such as her horrible behaviour towards her working class parents when they visit for "parents weekend" Lee is dull, she acts like a brat but the scene evokes no more than an eye roll as Lee isn't even interesting enough to be unlike-able.
The other major problem with the book is that nothing happens, you keep expecting it to and at times it nearly does... but not quite. People drift in and out of Lees life but we forget the characters as quickly as she does. It's as if the author didn't want to sully his work with such vulgar things as plot and character development.
This is my first Amazon review, although it seems scathing it's only because the writing has so much potential. If the book was half the length, if something actually happened, if older Lee had more insight and developed more than her teenage self, if any one of the books themes were expanded upon enough to make us reflect than this book could have been beautiful.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"I was terrified of unwittingly leaving behind a piece of scrap paper on which were written all my private desires and humiliations. The fact that no such scrap of paper existed ... never decreased my fear."
Lee Fiora has written a coming of age novel unlike no other. On the one hand she is insecure and unsure of most everything, and on the other hand she shows a maturity of thought on what she really wants to be:
"The interest I felt in certain guys then confused me, because it wasn't romantic, but I wasn't sure what else it might be. But now I know: I wanted to take up people's time making jokes, to tease the dean in front of the entire school, to call him by a nickname. What I wanted was to be a cocky high-school boy, so damned sure of my place in the world."
Curtis Sittenfeld, the author, grew up in Cincinnati, and went to Groton and then on to Vassar and Stanford. Lee Fiora grew up in South Bend, and then on to Ault Prep School and the U of Michigan. Curtis Sottenfeld would have us believe that this is not an autobiography, but many people who went to Groton can identify with much of the book. I would suggest that many people who were ever adolescents can identify with much of the book. This is a true coming of age novel, and one that reflects accurately the angst of the teenager. Most of us can sympathize with Lee Fiora, we have been there, we have suffered the same problems and issues, and Curtis Sittenfeld has depicted these events as startlingly and evenly as we remember them.
"Prep" is not an "us against "you" novel as suggested elsewhere. It is more of a compelling read about our lives and times. The "haves and have nots" are certainly registered. Cross, Aspeth, DeDe are all names that gleam money and power. "The Bankers Boys" are a reflection of the rich young men whose fathers are found on Wall Street. "Prep" also brings in the stereotypical race and sexual issues, but they are told with insight and familiar settings. We understand what these people are going through, and we can identify with the feelings and behaviors.
Lee Fiora is a young girl of the late 80's and early 90's. Just before the dawn of email and computer land. The students talk to each other and on the phone and communication with their parents is as I remember. The love/hate relationship with the family we have left behind and the values taught by our parents.
A memorable read. Many of us can identify with the behavior and feelings of Lee Fiora. In trying to find your place in the world, we all are wrestling with our inner beings. Well done Curtis Sittenfeld. My adolescence remembered, one of the best times of my life and one of my worst. Highly recommended. prisrob 01-01-06
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
More moaning about american high school
How many of these books do we really need ? You would have thought we had it all covered but no, Curtis Sittenfeld obviously felt the world needed another book about how horrible... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Hampstead Mackem
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unexciting
Bit monotonous. Flipped back and forth between time zones a little without giving enough information about the future. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Franny
1.0 out of 5 stars
Never ending!
What a disappointment. Expected so much from this book as her previous book American Wife was a wonderful read. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Norma Jansen
2.0 out of 5 stars
But nothing happens
On page 366 of my copy of Prep our protagonist sums herself up beautifully:
"Actually, Lee is the horrible one," I said. Read more
"Actually, Lee is the horrible one," I said. Read more
Published 8 months ago by lunaslittlelibrary
5.0 out of 5 stars
More please Curtis
Oh god this book is so good. I read it at breakneck pace and then listened to it again on audio cd about a year later, and was fascinated and enthralled all over again. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Kim
4.0 out of 5 stars
Teenage angst and ecstacy
I was a little dubious as to whether I would enjoy reading a novel about a 14 year old girl, as my teenage years are well and truly behind me. Read more
Published 22 months ago by J. Leeuwerke
3.0 out of 5 stars
Slightly disappointing
I bought this book having read - and adored - American Wife. Unfortunately this book, whilst 'OK', just didn't live up to Sittenfeld's later novel. Read more
Published on 8 May 2011 by K. Pendlenton
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging read
Prep tells the story of Lee, an American teenager from an ordinary family who wins a scholarship to the exclusive boarding school, Ault. Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2011 by Reddy
5.0 out of 5 stars
the agony and extacy of boarding school
I went to boarding school, as an outsider, and could relate to this. The atmosphere of the school, though on the surface very different to an old style English boarding school, was... Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2011 by Lucinda Stern
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
The book starts off promising and Lee Fiora, the young protagonist, appears to be an interesting character. Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2011 by Rachel
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