MADreads

The infamous Prep– worth the hype?

January 16th, 2009 Liz - Central Library

You know how there are books that ‘everyone’ has read except you?  That you’ve meant to read…probably when it came out…but never got around to?

For some reason I read these types of books while on vacation.  A couple years back I read, finally, Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner while at a northwoods cabin, and it was awesome…definitely lived up to the hype.  Then the next year I read Carol Shields’ The Stone Diaries and talked on and on about it when I got back from…the same northwoods cabin.

This Christmas/New Year’s season it was Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld.  Close readers of this blog know I swooned (seriously) over her newest book American Wife.  I suppose that’s what got me choosing Prep this holiday period.

Frankly, it was kind of a tough read. Not as in difficult language. Not because horrible things happen to people in the novel. (they don’t)  Just that the main character was both sweet, innocent and intensely irritating.

The novel takes place at a boarding school on the East Coast.  Main character Lee Fiora is there on scholarship, and is full of social anxiety.  So much so that she plans conversations in advance, debriefs in her own mind after each one, and even avoids people she’s just had a GOOD conversation with so she won’t run into them and disappoint them if the 2nd conversation isn’t as good as the first.

Nearly all of us had anxiety and social awkwardness issues in high school, but Lee’s are at such a high level that I felt alternatively sorry for her; irritated by her; disgusted by her; and exasperated by her.  Which, I suppose, is really saying something.  Lee does do better as the years progress.  But not lots better…just some.  She does find a super supportive roommate in Martha, but then I wondered exactly why Martha kept hanging around with such a needy friend.  Probably to an author a strong reaction in a reader is far better than a reader’s boredom.  But I’m not sure that’s the emotional arc I’m looking for personally in a book.

Still two out of three is pretty good odds in my catch-up reading so the trend will probably continue.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction