Prep: A Novel

Our protagonist Lee Fiora decides to apply to an East Coast boarding school in a fit of precociousness and derring-do at the age of 14. She leaves her parents and calm Midwestern existence for a more exciting life at Ault School. Again: at the age of 14. It goes horribly, of course. She must face the gender, race, and class discrimination that props up the ivy-covered brick façade of Ault. She navigates loneliness. She struggles to answer this question: do I want to change myself, peel away my me-ness in order to fit into this archaic institution or do I want to alienate myself from everyone by becoming a conscientious objector to this lifestyle? She narrates her four years at Ault after the fact as an adult, and it is clear that even after maturing outside this fishbowl, she has no good answer to this question.

Two disclaimers:
1. This is not chick-lit, despite the title and pink belted cover.
2. It is an uncomfortable read.

If we're supposed to read this book as chick-lit, it's ridiculously marketed. It has too much bite to be considered chick-lit, with its extraordinarily detailed narration and its casual indictment of its wealthy and waspy characters. Lee's perspective is devastatingly realistic, apparently so authentic that some have questioned how biographical this story is. Many reviewers seem to hate Lee because she is always a bystander and never an actor. I must admit that even as an introvert, I found Lee's introversion and resulting passivity infuriating and occasionally painful. She cannot decide how she wants to participate in this ridiculous life she's accidentally chosen for herself at age 14 and thus she's listless. She moves nowhere, being careful to make no obvious mistakes but because of that, truly making every mistake. As she says,

"I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely."

Teenagers live in state of metamorphosis and high school is their chrysalis. Imagine if your chrysalis is inhabited by the spoiled offspring of Manhattanite bankers and national senators. Imagine if the floral pattern on your bedspread determines whether you are popular or not. Imagine that if you pine after a boy, you can never approach him; he will pursue, you will be pursued. Imagine if your chrysalis cannot be cracked open at the end of each school day when you return home; you live among your peers in this extreme environment for four straight years.

Actually stop imagining that because it's horrifying. It's obvious how such a life could ruin a mere child. How can you decide who you want to be in such conditions? I loved Sittenfeld's largely plotless but wholly profound depiction of these conditions because it allowed me to vicariously live them without suffering their consequences.

And after the melancholy final page, I was forcefully reminded me of three things: 1. we can only hope we have good parents 2. only by being rich, white, and male can you live your life effortlessly 3. boarding school will screw you up.

I honestly feel like I must have read a different book than everyone else. All I can say is thank goodness I downloaded this from the library because if I'd purchased it, I'd be feeling ripped off.

It was a very self-centered story of a high end prep school that the main character, a scholarship student, attended. The main character wanted this, yet is unhappy after getting it. She doesn't go out of her way to be likable nor is she anyone I could relate to. Most of the characters are unlikable and pretty one-dimensional.

Why did I keep reading? I kept thinking that surely this has to get better, look at all the good reviews it got! It didn't get better.

Although it was a bit long, I loved Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife, so I decided to go back and read her first novel, PREP. At over 400 pages, it too is long, but it was worth the read. Sittenfeld is an excellent writer. She doesn't try to dumb down her text, and yet she doesn't try to be overly intellectual in her prose either, which might challenge and isolate some readers.

The novel follows teenage Lee Fiora's high school years as she goes to Ault, a boarding/preparatory ("prep") school in Massachusetts. Lee herself is from Indiana and on a scholarship, unlike most students at the school whose wealthier parents can afford to send their children there without financial assistance. She feels out of place, but it was something she wanted to do with her high school years. Other characters are her various roommates, a few other students, a couple of teachers, her parents, and her crush, Cross Sugarman. The whole time, I kept picturing Cross as Sebastian from TV's "The Carrie Diaries."

PREP goes semester by semester through Lee's high school career, with some leaps from Fall to Spring and from Spring to Fall, bypassing Lee's summers and breaks. Lee's character is fleshed out very well; I often saw her as a real "normal" person. The novel is very introspective...but sometimes that made for a very long read. With the two novels I've read of hers, Sittenfeld does a fantastic job with descriptive passages, sometimes too well. Sometimes you just want the story to move on. As I continued to read, I kept thinking, "Is anything ever going to happen?" In the end, not a lot does, but we've followed Lee through the highs and lows of high school at a prep school, where often not a lot does happen other than personal growth.

It's not classified as such, but I would consider this book to be Young Adult because of its subject matter, but it has appeal to both teenagers and adults. In fact, it's better suited for teenagers moreso than most YA books out there. While there are some minor sexual situations and a few curse words thrown in there and there, it's not advocating teenage sex, it isn't overly graphic, it's not set in a dystopian world, and there isn't a single vampire to be found. It's about a teenage girl discovering herself and emerging into a young adult without a lot of drama. It's like a much longer Judy Blume book.

I got this book recommended to me by virtually everybody around me when they heard that I was signing up for a boarding school, and I think I know why: It prepares you for the hard comings ahead. The book is not really written as a "guide" so to speak, more like just a casual school life.

The prep is if you look at the word itself: just what you need to do to go to a college you want, and that is partially true since this book is based on a high-school student. However, if you dig more into the book, you can realize that the meaning of prep is much more wide ranged than that.

It is not only just the preparation for college; it is for your future in life, stronger friendship, happy family relationship, and how to manage yourself.

Lee Fiora is the main character of this book, and the story is told in her first-person perspective. She leaves her family behind in India to go to Ault school in Massachusetts, and it is mostly school life stories. There are some tense friendships, problems with school grade, and (all story is incomplete without it) a crush with a boy.

The best way to describe this book will be a share of a girl's high-school experience. It is a four-year course story in a single book, so there had to be shortenings and summarizing but I think it just got the ratio right between all the subjects.

The book is not at all obligatory, but reading really helps to prepare for boarding school and it is a book that I recommend to all of those who are preparing for them.

This was definitely one of the most engrossing novels I've read so far this year. PREP is the story of Lee, an insightful and eloquent (yet insecure) teen from Indiana. Remembering words her middle class father spoke years before ("these are the kinds of houses where they send their sons to boarding school"), she has made it her goal to attend an elite boarding school. And she achieves it-- with a scholarship. The story commences as Lee begins her first year at Ault (think Andover) and concludes as she graduates four years later.

This was an the store recommendation since I read Tom Brown's Schooldays. And, it's similar-- a bit. Like Schooldays, History Boys, even Harry Potter, etc., the book follows the lives of several teens during their formative years. I'm not sure everyone would like it-- I'm not sure I'd recommend it to my husband, for instance, but it was indeed excellent. The author, Curtis Sittenfeld , really has the voice of a young insecure teen growing into a more confident, but never completely secure, young woman. Initiallly, I thought the author was a man and was completely taken aback-- how could a man actually know this girl so thoroughly? However, Curtis Sittenfeld is indeed a woman. And, the protagonist and her friends and classmates lives were exactly as I remembered my own life and those of my friends and classmates during high school. Truly, the authenticity the author brought to this book-- the dialogue, the events, the crushes, the friendships-- was uncanny.

I've read the negative reviews here, but disagree with some of the reasoning. One reviewer, for instance, writes about how boring the sex scenes were. With all due respect, that reviewer missed the point-- of course the sex was boring and empty and that was the very purpose of writing about it. So much the narrator believed or hoped to be important was or turned out to be empty and insignificant (even while remaining a pivotal event in her own life).

If you're female and if your own memories of high school are less than ideal, I completely recommend this book but also warn you to read this with caution. For me, this brought back memories I haven't even thought about in years. And, worse, it made some of those memories absolutely new-- as if they happened yesterday. Obsessions over insignificant events become magnified . . . analyzing and over-analyzing every response and comment from every person within your social circle. . . reading between the lines when the lines themselves are perfectly clear. . . accepting much less than you deserve. . . giving less to others than they deserve (or maybe worse-- giving more to others than warranted). . . Prep will make all these memories new again.

Let me preface this review by saying that people who neither have experienced nor feel interest in the East Coast, boarding schools, or semi-cloistered communities will have no interest in this book. A quick check: Do you like fall? Have you ever referred to a campus as "the bubble"? Are you in possession of more than one piece of plaid clothing?

If the answer to any of those questions is "Yes," please read on.

"If a guy believed my value to lie in my looks, it meant either that he'd somehow been misled and would eventually be disappointed, or that he had very low standards."

The narrator/protagonist of Prep is Lee Fiora: a girl who falls in love with the idea of going off to boarding school and reinventing herself. After all, the only difference between the Indiana school where she excels and the Massachusetts school she aims for is one time zone, right?

Well, no. Not so much.

It turns out that Lee's new school is home to a sub-society of fabulously wealthy, beautiful, and talented people. She may have been the sharpest crayon in the South Bend box, but the kids of Ault School have gone digital. Perhaps an utterly-confident girl with a knack for reinvention could have swung it without problems. Lee, unfortunately, is not that girl (see quote above). Throw in the not-insubstantial travails of teenagerdom and she's pretty much doomed from the start.

"There are people we treat wrong, and later, we're prepared to treat other people right. Perhaps this sounds mercenary, but I feel grateful for these trial relationships, and I would like to think it all evens out--surely, unknowingly, I have served as practice for other people."

The book follows Lee's four years at Ault, with each chapter covering a season. While the usually high school events all occur (classes and dances and crushes, oh my!), a few out-of-the-ordinary things are put in, too. One classmate gets expelled for theft. Another tries to commit suicide. A third comes out of the closet. (To be fair, these things may all have happened at your high school. If so, you and I have very different academic histories.)

"You confuse being weird and spending time alone. But anyone who's really interested in anything spends time alone...if you want to be good at something, you have to practice, and usually you practice by yourself. The fact that you spend time alone--you shouldn't feel like it's strange."

Throughout, Lee struggles. Academically. Emotionally. Romantically. I won't say whether she comes out better in the end (you'll need to read to find that out), but you can be sure she leaves Ault a changed woman.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I felt it had a strong enough narrative thrust to overcome being read it in snatches on trains and at bus stops. I'm a sucker for a good bildungsroman. I can also identify with that desire to move and reinvent yourself; I think all of us have those moments at some point, though so few people actually act on the impulse.

Perhaps what I appreciate most (other than the examination of crippling self-doubt) is Lee's fascination with the structure, mores, and habits of her school. The joy she gets in reading the school directory. Or looking at the names of all the school's prefects engraved in gold in the dining common. Unfortunately for Lee, school's not just about the building. It's the people that make it...interesting.

Prep follows Lee Fiora as she enters and eventually graduates from a prestigious prep school. The chapters are large and the book is divided into semester sections, though not all semesters are described. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why certain semesters and events were written about and others were not.

In some ways, this book was very well done. Lee's voice was honest and conjured up my own adolescent memories with painful accuracy. Lee was a candid narrator who didn't make excuses for her teenage shortcomings and instead simply described what was, what she felt, and what she observed. I was able to relate to so many things Lee described and, even though my own adolescence was markedly different from Lee's in terms of events, I often felt transported back to my own shared experiences and feelings. Still, while I often felt bad for her, I didn't actually like her very much.

But is any of that really a good thing? Who wants to relive the awkward, uncomfortable, aimless, and painful parts of being a teenager? Sure, the author wrote well and captured the voice and experience of a teenager very well, but who wants to read hundreds of pages of that? Compounding this is the fact that the book has no real direction or point. Lee, like many adolescents, pretty much floats through high school. She doesn't really have any climatic event happen to her, she doesn't really grow or improve, and there are no real lessons or point to reading her experiences. I'm not sure why I read this book, why the author wrote it, and what the point of it all was. This type of book just might not be for me (I also disliked Tobias Wolff's Old School for similar reasons), and while I don't recommend against it, I don't recommend reading it either.

Lee Fiora is an interesting teenager. She becomes, for whatever reason, interested in attending boarding school. All we know is that she completes the application process independently of outside influences. Lee tells us that she her public high school is not of the same caliber as Ault School. With a scholarship, Lee is off to Ault.

And so begins our look into Lee's experiences at Ault. Her family and hometown friends are peripheral- she focuses solely on her time at Ault. We discover Lee's family only through her days at Ault- parents weekend, Christmas vacation senior year, phone calls. We do learn about Dede, Amy, Sin-Jun, Martha, Conchita, Cross and many other Ault students. We see how their lives affect Lee. I could not put down this book.

Then, the grown-up Lee starts to tell us about their futures. Sin-Jun's "illness" and what happens much later is thrown into the mix. Lee also mixes her past and present in her stories. I wasn't all that interested in the grown up Lee, the 26 year old Sin-Jun, etc. I wanted to know every little detail about the teenaged Lee Fiora, Sin-Jun, Martha, etc.

Anyway, Lee is a very disturbed, very complex teenager. She is the epitome of teen angst, insecurity, and fluctuating hormones. She shares with us all the teenaged taboos we all wished we could have shared. I felt that I got to know Lee quite well.

The end of the book is satisfying. We get our closure on the lives of Dede, Cross, Sin-Jun, Darden, Aspeth, etc. As for Lee, well, the grown-up Lee is never quite sure of herself. We're left hanging because Lee is a work in progress. All we really know is that her clearest life experience happens on the T. And maybe that is all that matters- the small insights into life's mysteries...

Lee Fiora doesn't have the answers, but she can take you on a fascinating journey through her PREP school.

Girl goes to prep school on scholarship, pretends to be cool but is really a shallow poser who wishes she could fit in but when she doesn't - she screws everyone over under the pretense of trying to 'out' the school of racial intolerance - when in fact it was just the cultural realties of high school. Hope everyone she knew in prep school treats her like a pariah - she basically got a fake, cheap and intellectually dishonest form of revenge on her school. If she had been honest with herself & truly brave - she could have handled her issues in a much different way. I felt like I needed a shower after reading this rubbish and was embarrassed for the author - ewwww.

Let me first start by saying that Curtis Sittenfeld is a really good writer, excellent even, at letting the reader into a narrator’s head and their very essence. Unfortunately, this ability may be the very thing that hurts the novel. At its core, Prep is the story about Lee Fiora, ordinary, middle class girl from small Midwestern town who moves all the way to the East Coast to attend an elite Prep school and her journey throughout her four years.

Unfortunately for the reader, Lee is not a particularly interesting individual. She truly seems to be in many ways a living shadow, a girl who spends four years at her Prep school never leaving the sidelines. She is passive, dull, uninteresting, lacks any special abilities and/or talents and passion for anything when we meet her in freshman year and she sadly remains this way throughout her four years at Ault. In fact, the very small glances Sittenfeld provided of her adult life, suggested not much changed for Lee as she got older.

The reader gets a vague passing reference to her career in which Lee honestly sounds bored, she basically admits that she hated college, there are no references to relationships, marriage, boyfriend and at the time she’s re-telling the story, she still declares that no guy had matched a particular look/feeling she had with Cross during one of their brief encounters. And considering how pathetic for Lee that whole situation with Cross was, that line was extremely sad and made me wonder if she had ever truly graduated from Ault or if years later, despite her doing nothing remarkable or memorable there (unless one counts the newspaper article I guess) she was still holding onto it. The place where she neither shined, changed, grew as a person, excelled, etc. The place where she really did nothing but merely exist for four years, like a shadow.

As noted, the key problem is that Lee as a character spends her entire four years of high school, and thus the entire novel, simply standing silently by and watching. It’s all she does. She just silently observes, makes a few jerky, snide comments here and there in her head but nothing clever enough to make her particularly interesting or even insightful. She is so deep in her head, overthinking every little exchange, interaction, word, question, etc. that it almost feels at times that she forgot to actually live. So busy is she with trying to figure out the “the perfect thing to say, the right way to act, the language/world/ideology of Ault, etc.”

For the record, I’m sure there are the Lee Fiora’s of the world. The people who truly are simply ordinary in every word and who spend their entire lives on the sidelines, never being bold, never taking real chances, never getting outside their head and I mean no disrespect to those people when I say this – the problem with these people is that they are BORING to read about.
And this is what I mean by Sittenfeld was almost too good at capturing Lee’s voice to the point that I could almost figuratively feel her crippling, borderline paralyzing awkwardness and weirdness and that’s fine for a few chapters.

But 400 plus pages of it becomes exhausting and that ultimately is what this book and Lee was – exhausting. It was exhausting going through page after page of Lee never actually DOING anything, page after page of her inner monologues, thoughts, feelings over the most mundane things and page after page of her mind-numbingly tedious overanalyzing of some of the most basic human interactions. It was just exhausting.

To be fair though, there were moments, brief, fleeting moments where something interesting happened and as sad as it is to say, those were often times where Lee was at her most jerky and obnoxious. But those moments were great because the reader was finally given something, something beyond her passive, overanalyzing, introspective blatherings of what was going on around her as she continued to sit on the sidelines doing nothing.

As much as I cheered her dad going off on her, I enjoyed the entire scene because the reader got to see Lee come alive even a little bit and again, even if it was only to be a jerk. Her brief interactions/flirtation with the cook was dare I say almost normal, even while she couldn’t help going into her head to overanalyze the simplest things. And again, while her actions, ultimately dismissing him in front of others was a jerk thing to do, it was sadly in many ways a normal teenage girl reaction.

And I did think the newspaper article was slightly interesting because as Martha noted, for someone who overthinks things as much as Lee, who is so in her own head, obsessing about every minute word, sentence, it is unlikely that she’d so carelessly run off at the mouth to a reporter. Four years of doing nothing, observing, sitting on the sidelines had allowed Lee the chance to build some resentments and bitterness towards the reality of what Ault was and so close to graduation she gave herself the freedom to release the bomb. A not so passive move, finally, except Lee is never fully honest with herself that she meant to say and do what she did and so even in “rebellion”, she still remained mostly submissive.

But these moments were too few and far between and after that, all that was really left were the boring, insipid, banal observations of a girl who never really did anything or seemed to truly care about anything. Even with her Cross obsession, Lee could barely muster the effort to say something as simple as hi, in passing, as Martha rightly points out to her at one point. Lee was content to simply awkwardly watch Cross from afar and do nothing, until he came to her.

And then he didn’t have to do anything but show up because again, Lee just passively allowed him in – no questions about the fact that he barely said a word to her in three years after that day at the mall or hell just a simple “what the hell are you doing in my bed?” She just accepts him and lets him in and does what he wants. And while their angsty scene where she finally expresses herself openly and forcefully and calls him out on making her feel horrible was necessary, it felt way overdue and therefore lost some of its impact.

Finally, Prep could have been saved for me despite Lee’s shortcomings, if Sittenfeld had balanced her bland banality with a few if not colorful, somewhat interesting characters but she didn’t. While some of the characters showed shades of an interesting personality, as the book is told solely from Lee’s perspective, not the most reliable narrator, we get very little other than the bare minimum. Because Lee never spends much time moving away from overanalyzing how every word, sentence, look, incident affects her and/or her reality of Ault.

This novel has attracted a tremendous degree of attention in its hardback form, and should continue to do so in this paperback version. I became interested in it for several reasons, including the fact that the author was teaching here at St. Albans in Washington, one of the toniest male prep schools in the East, and I thought some insights into the world of prep schools might emerge. The story involves Lee, from middle class South Bend, Indiana, who manages to end up at an exclusive eastern prep school for her secondary education. The novel involves her initiation into the world of this elite institution, as she proceeds through adolescence. Lee faces many teenage crises along the way as her four years pass by. The question is, why would any of us who are not teenies want to spend our time reading about Lee's experiences? The answer is that Ms. Sittenfeld is truly a remarkable writer who rewards the reader constantly. Whether the scene is poignant, explosive (such as one breathtaking exchange between Lee and her father during her first "parents' weekend), mundane or whatever, the author is more than equal to the challenge. If anybody would have told me a 400 page book about a high school student coming of age would hold my attention throughout, I would have laughed at them. Yet it all seems to work thanks to the author's remarkable writing talent. To be sure, there are points when I had to ask myself "why am I reading this?", but I was soon engrossed once again. We can only await with the greatest expectation the author's next novel, a brief excerpt of which is included, to further enjoy this extraordinary talent.

I am writing this review before I read any others, so that I am not influenced by them.
I read this in two sittings, and was aghast at how I felt afterwards. I was an English boarding school pupil (scholarship) at around this time - the mid-1980s to 1990s - and so much of this rang so true, it was like ringing in the New Year.
I loved the fact that Lee was flawed, and a snob. Of course she was. She was brought up in a small town as the brightest star, then transferred to a town where stars twinkled so much more brightly, and expensively, and effortlessly. She wanted to fit in, but didn't do so on the first day and thus became awkward, and diffident. And so all her problems arose, and mounted, and escalated.
I loved the free-thinking, self-deprecating nature of Sittenfield's writing. For the first time in a very long time, I didn't feel the main character was perfect, or near-perfect, or deserving, or Disney-esque. Lee was insecure, and flawed, and sometimes deeply introspective, yet sometimes distant and mean. Aren't we all? The Conchita episode made me almost weep with recognition and sadness.
Although the romance in the second half seemed to fulfill everything Lee had wished for, of course it really didn't. How many women/girls would read that account of sexual insecurity without thinking 'Oh God, I've been there - in that very room!' The outcome seemed so painfully obvious - girls feel an awful lot, whereas boys tend to want to 'experience' an awful lot.
The chapter about Parents' Weekend with Lee's father brough back a hundred painful memories. We have all let our parents down in hideous ways, and reading about them AS parents doesn't dilute the pain of those days. I could almost follow Lee's experience (the embarrassment, the shame and the resulting rudeness on my part followed by a resounding slap) word for word. I cringed as I read it. Thank God it wasn't only me who treated their parents so badly at 16!
My daughter is 11 and I shall pass this book onto her when the time is right - it is EXACTLY the kind of thoughtful, flawed, painfully aware account of school (public or otherwise) that all teenage girls should know about.
Especially the popular, pretty ones - after all, I think they must identify with this a little too, depsite the bravado?!
For any English girls out there, this was like Malory Towers or St Clare's - comforting, familiar, vaguely exciting - with all the desperation and hopelessness of real life thrown in as well.
Brilliant.

After watching the television show Downton Abbey, I have become fascinated by the concept, lifestyle, and values of Old Money Families. On my journey and study of the elite sub-culture I coincidentally stumbled onto this book and I ended up really liking it.

I do not typically read fictional books but I found the audio version of this book captivating and I had a hard time walking away from this book.

The book is narrated in the first person as an audiobook it flows well like she is telling you the story. It turns out, many aspects of this book might be semi-autobiographical, which adds to the authenticity, depth, and detail of the book.

I identified with the main character in this book so much. Her awkwardness and her insecurities felt so familiar. I've been out of high school for almost 15 years but so many of my high school memories came flooding back - good and bad. It also made me realize that I needed to reconnect with some of my high school friends and make amends. After finishing this book, I've been recommending it to everyone. A woman that I work with said, "I could have been friends with Lee." I completely feel the same way. I also recommended it to another co-worker's daughter and she loved it, so now she's coming to me for book recommendations.

Curtis Sittenfeld really blew me away with her first novel, so much so that I immediately started searching for information on her second novel. I was so happy to find that "The Man of My Dreams" had been published three weeks prior and I immediately checked it out from the library. It's equally as good. If you like coming-of-age stories, "Prep" is a great one. When you finish it give yourself some time before you start "The Man of My Dreams" because you may be expecting it to be "Prep" which it's not, it is its own book and should be treated as such.

I did. I bought Curtis Sittenfeld's `PREP' without really knowing anything about it because...well, I liked the cover. Luckily the inside was even better than the outside.

I loved the story of the extremely shy and overly conscious Lee Fiora mainly because it was so real. Many people who believed that Lee was a snob or who had hoped that in her four years at Ault that she would have evolved into some sort of social butterfly must not have ever been to high school, because unfortunately, things don't usually work out that way in real life. I can't honestly say that I was ever really shy but I was, as most teenagers are, very self-conscious in high school and being less than ten years out of it I can still recall feeling like everything you did was being observed by everyone. My guess is that most teenagers...yes, even the popular ones feel this way much of the time. Which is why I think that many people will relate to Sittenfelds `PREP'. Lee's story is told after the fact, through her eyes as an adult, which gives the book even more credibility and likeability because she is able to be somewhat nostalgic for those days while at the same time realizing her mistakes.

`PREP' takes us through fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora's first days at Ault School, an upper class Massachusetts boarding school, all the way up until her graduation day. Lee is one of the few non-minorities at Ault on scholarship, which only serves to intensify her already existing insecurities. Unfortunately, the thing that Lee wants most is also the thing that she is most afraid of and that is being noticed. She therefore takes extreme measures to ensure that she goes unnoticed for as long as possible. She purposely remains friendless for as long as she can until her friendlessness proves to be too noticeable. She also does not participate in any social activities whatsoever because, well, she has no idea what to do in a group setting. Lee eventually becomes so afraid of anything happening in her life good or bad that she never actually lives it, she just becomes and observer and lets others take charge. I felt that Sittenfled accurately portrayed Lee's struggle with her family, the love and sometimes anger she felt for her best friend when she sensed that they were drifting apart and her first relationship with a boy and how often times they can be very one-sided. I feel that this book could serve well as a teenager's guide of what not to do in high school. Lee tends to be a little on the severe side in regards to her self-consciousness where sometimes you just want to scream at the book "get over it!" But for those of us who have already lived through it, you will more than likely feel some small kinship with Lee.

This is one book that I truly did not want to end. I wanted to read more about Lee Fiora, her life after Ault and even her life in present day. I cannot wait to see what Sittenfeld's follow up to this one will be but I guarantee you I will be amongst the first to purchase it!

Covering much of the same ground as "I am Charlotte Simmons", but far more realistic and better written, "Prep" is an sensitive insider's look at four years in an exclusive prep school. Curtis Sittenfeld (a woman) writes circles around Tom Wolfe here, especially in creating a believable and authentic sounding heroine. Both books (which share the flaw of being overly long and in dire need of rigorous copy editing) take a long time to get around the main point, which is the phenomena of "hooking up" -- very casual, male-oriented sex that has largely taken the place of traditional dating.

Ms. Sittenfeld has an edge here because she's a woman and closer in age to her heroine, and also because she is a product of elite private education (she's the daughter of a private school educator, and attended Groton). "Prep" has the distinctive feel of a thinly disguised memoir, even though the author denies it and has taken pains to change the location and economic background of the heroine from her own. Still, the sheer mounds of detail and lack of action give the novel the feeling of an autobiography.

Lee Fiora is a bright and high-achieving student at a public school in her hometown of South Bend, Indiana when she independently applies for a scholarship to the prestigious Ault School. This is about the last really assertive action the heroine takes, and technically it occurs before the novel even begins. After arriving at Ault, she quickly realizes that her academic skills are far from outstanding at this selective private school, and she is neither beautiful nor athletic nor popular. This causes her to lag into a wallflowerish, mildly depressive state for her entire four years. While this makes for some dull stretches, it's a very realistic look at the world of a teenager and certainly convinces as a look inside the snobby status conscious world of prep school academies. (You can't help but wonder what Lee's experience might have been had she stayed in public school in South Bend, where she would have been a stand-out academic star, rather than a "nobody", and if this was truly a worthwhile trade off for her.)

Eventually as a senior, Lee gets together with the handsome blonde athelete, Cross, she has been crushing on since freshman year and they embark on a graphically described "hooking up" relationship -- in other words, casual no-strings sex in the dorm. Lee is in love with Cross, but he's a cad who is basically screwing most of the girls at school and barely acknowledges her in public. I found this to be a brutally honest picture of this type of relationship, which is increasing common, as so many low-self-esteem young women feel they have nothing to offer to the young men they desire except "free sex", especially oral sex., and sadly this situation only ensures that the young men involved develop little caring or respect for the women they encounter this way.

In this respect, "Prep" is possibly a bit too racy (although bluntly honest) for a junior high or high school audience of readers, and yet it's precisely these readers who would be most interested in the story and to whom it would offer the most value. Prep school is not exactly a compelling interest to adults over 25 (whether they went or not), and Ms. Sittenfeld's story mostly wraps up at graduation (with a few footnotes as to what happened to some of the supporting characters). Personally, I would have liked more development as far as what happened to Lee, not just after high school, but how she developed as an adult woman after her initial romantic experience was so demeaning.

On balance, this novel is very well written and certainly many parts of it are interesting and authentic in feeling. I do wonder if Ms. Sittenfeld, with her all-prep-school background (she even teaches today, at a prep school!) has anything else in her repetoir to write about. It's fine to have a catharctic release of all the frustration, loneliness and pettiness that make up high school (for everyone, rich and poor), but eventually we must move on into adulthood, where frankly nobody cares much where you went to high school.

I enjoyed Prep because I thought Curtis did a great job at relating the everyday anxieties of being a high-school aged human being. I liked the way the book ended, because there was no neat tie-up of the story...school ends and Lee goes back home. Just like real life. I appreciated that in the book.

However, for being so true to life in describing Lee's inner life, there were some moments in the book that I felt were far-fetched and did not ring true that took away from the book. The scene where one of the Ault adults drops Lee off at the hospital because of a friend's overdose seemed nothing more than a plot device so that Lee could be forced to get a ride home with the cook.

And Cross Sugarman, the man of Lee's unrequited dreams, just suddenly appears at her bed one night, climbs in and begins to fool around with her. Right. I guess as a writer if you can't come up with a natural way for Lee and Cross to begin a relationship, just skip that part and head right to the sex. That really was a weak part of the book, in my opinion.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the painfully awkward walk down memory lane of teenage life that is Prep.

PREP, the debut novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, chronicles the life of Lee Fiora, native of South Bend, Indiana, during the four years she spends at Ault, a prestigious boarding school in Boston, on the East Coast. Because Lee is a scholarship student--a fact which is obvious to her classmates--she doesn't quite fit in with the children of oil tycoons and senators. During her four years at Ault, Lee experiences things that are typical of most high school girls: a crush on the most popular boy in school, friendships made and broken, problems with teachers and grades, feelings of inferiority and displaced anger, a separation from parents...in a nutshell, Lee comes of age (and most of us know how difficult that is). Lee has no characteristics that distinguish her from her classmates; she sees herself as boring and periphery. Her emotions are heightened; small words and actions become heightened, too, so Lee is prone to overanalyzing everything: "I felt strongly about everything--not just my interactions with people, their posture or their inflections, but also the physical world, the smell of the wind, the overhead lights in the math wing, the precise volume of the radio in the bathroom if it was playing while I brushed my teeth. Everything in the world I liked or disliked, wanted more or less of, wanted to end or continue." PREP, written from a first-person point-of-view, chronicles Lee's long, difficult journey to self-discovery.

So, did I like the book? I've put off writing this review for two days, trying to answer that question. Although some reviewers here seem to have found Lee shallow, self-absorbed, and monotonously whiny, I'm not sure how inaccurate Sittenfeld's portrayal of teenage girls is. I found Lee to be a very real character, someone I alternately rooted for and swore at. Her trials, yes, seem petty--but I remember being a teenager, thinking that my life would be over if my crush didn't look at me in geometry. I remember feelings of inadequacy; I recall being embarrassed by something my parents said or did in front of my friends. These, I think--correct me if I'm wrong--are universal feelings, and Sittenfeld does a brilliant job of honing in on life in a teenage girl's skin. So, if this is the measure by which I should judge the book--I liked it.

But, on the other hand, these same praises of the novel are also its faults. PREP is what it is--a coming of age story--and not much else. The plot meanders, often skipping back and forth in time junctures that confused me. Nothing really HAPPENS to Lee in the book, other than that she grows up, and maybe learns a little bit about herself along the way. There is no climax; there is no real POINT to the book. Yes, maybe more sensitive readers could see it as a social commentary on class differences--but I just saw it as a testimony to adolescent angst. Lee would have experienced the things she did anywhere, in a run-down public school or in an expensive boarding academy--it's just part of growing up.

What kept me reading--besides a mild curiosity to know how Lee was going to turn out--was Sittenfeld's absolutely stunning narrative voice. The prose in this book is truly special, and some of Sittenfeld's observations are so simply written but yet are so profound. The writing was seamless. I'll be curious to see what she writes next--hopefully something with a little more plot and a little less teen drama.

Many reviewers here have criticized Prep for being boring, plotless and too detailed, while others admire the writing and the realistic take on prep school life. I agree in that halfway through I felt bogged down and weary of Lee's analysis of her own feelings--her self-consciousness becomes claustrophobic. Yet something compels everyone to finish the book, and the last half makes it all worth it, in my opinion. Real insights are delivered.

The very thing that makes the book flawed is also its exceptional gift--Lee's remarkable and intricate emotional insights about herself. The character of Lee is so thoroughly developed and revealed, and her emotions and responses so fascinatingly dissected, that unfortunately there is little room left over for any other characters. Everyone else in the book is kind of a cipher or a stereotype.

There is no plot because real life doesn't have a plot, and this story is about a real life. That's, in part, what gives the writing its remarkable insight. I assume the book is based quite a bit on the emotional life of Sittenfeld herself, and this is also a negative and a positive about the book. The positive is the acute realism it gives the character of Lee. The negative is that those parts of the story that are not in some way autobiographical ring false.

Also, characters who are actual real friends in Sittenfeld's life are not fully developed because she's protecting them. Other characters, you can tell, she is wreaking revenge on---for example the poor, hapless teacher Ms. Moray. Sittenfeld says something to the effect---I would not want to see her today to either thank her or apologize to her.... What does this have to do with the story? It's just Sittenfeld getting back at the real Ms. Moray, I would guess. Likewise, other characters seem to be jabbed at or protected. So no character in the book is artfully and imaginatively developed. This is not fully a work of imagination. However, it is a remarkable chronicle by a gifted and intelligent writer. Like many have said, I look forward to her next book.

My 10 year high school reunion is quickly approaching, and although I didn't attend a prep school like "Prep's" Lee Fiora, I was definitely one of the poorest kids amongst my friends who's parents were doctors, lawyers and professors. I can definitely relate to the shame of not having enough. Although I've mostly grown out of it, most kids don't---just look at our nation's credit card debt. We are victims of "keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome.

First off the quality of the writing is excellent. Very dense and detailed--but detailed in all the right places. It's obviously a book about teenagers for adults. Although there isn't much for plot and Lee Fiora, the main character, isn't too likeable as a character, she's selfish (like all teens, yes ALL) and makes some BAD decisions based on serious insecurities. She has her good moments--her experiences resonate with my own as a teen.

I don't know how this book sits with teens-they may be too close to the source to really get it. But as an adult approaching a 10 year reunion in June--I thought it was excellent.

Every year, as the season changes to summer, I switch from non-fiction to novels. This year's summer sleeper does not disappoint. "Prep" is a beautifully written account of the life of a middle-class scholarship student from South Bend, Indiana at "Ault," a New England prep school remarkably similar to Groton. Lee Fiora, in perhaps her last act of ambition, applied to various boarding schools and convinced her mattress-salesman father and bookkeeper mother to allow her to head East. Lee goes from being an outstanding student at South Bend public schools to a mediocre student at Ault. Embarrassed by her background (and by her family itself, particularly in a memorable section on "Parents Weekend"), Lee's insecurity hampers her from truly being a part of Ault. Lee secretly pines for one of the class stars, but doubts that she is the sort whom he would ever want to marry.

Sittenfeld asks us to question whether schools like Ault, while clearly providing an excellent education, are really the best place for teenagers. The insularity of these schools, coupled with the wealth of most of the students, leads to a narrowness of outlook. I came away believing that Lee Fiora would probably have been better served by the fictitious "Marvin Thompson High School," where she would have been a star student and involved in school activities -- and would have undoubtedly wound up at the very same university she ultimately attended.

Before picking up "Prep," I wondered if it would resonate with one who attended (30 years ago) an overcrowded New York City public high school. The truth is that you need not have been a prep school student to understand or relate to this book. Every high school is its own miniature web of intrigue, with tangled relationships, ins and outs, the cool and the nerds, and a hierarchy of status which vanishes after the graduates go their separate ways. Boarding school no doubt exaggerates the hothouse atmosphere, but even prep school graduates are likely to agree with Lee Fiora that "as more and more years passed . . . the time I had known any of my classmates, would feel decreasingly significant; eventually, it would be only a backdrop to our real lives."

Curtis Sittenfeld's debut novel is engaging and well worth your time.

Lee Fiora is a typical middle-class girl from Indiana who talks her family into letting her attend Ault, a prestigious boarding school in the east, for which she has won a scholarship. Lee, in her teenage, midwestern naivety believes that going away to school will mirror the beautiful pictures on the school brochure...groups of students chatting benignly in front of brick buildings; endless games of basketball and lacrosse; girls in sweater sets and boys in blue blazers. What she finds is a completely insular world where money defines you, even though is is expressly never spoken about and popularity is defined by who is the most casually rich, beautiful, and sarcastic.

A fun and outgoing girl at home, Lee immediately becomes wary of her surroundings and is withdrawn into herself, unable to express what she really wants because of her intimidation of their way of life. Anyone who was on the fringes of their high school class will resonate with Lee's thoughts on her unability to fully participate...she never goes to dances or social events and it takes her a full year to find one great friend.

Throughout her high school experience, she is in love with Cross Sugarman, the 'golden boy' who helps her during a mall field trip when she gets her ears pierced by herself and faints. They never really have a real relationship, but she can't help herself from holding a candle for him. There are many other fascinating side characters in the story - her best friend Martha, dorm-mates Dede, Aspeth, and Sin-Jun, and her own family who remain her solid link to the regular world from which she came.

By the time she is a senior, Lee has made a place for herself at Ault and is finally comfortable, if not with who she really is, at least with what she has become there. Then, in one instant, her entire painstakingly won work of climbing the social ladder falls apart around her and she's left to discover what really matters in her life.

I loved this book and highly recommend it!

In any society, there are outsiders, people who do not fit in. The protagonist is an outsider who very much wants to fit in to her prep school, to an extent which is self defeating. As a consequence, she leads a dull life. She is observant, but not especially insightful. From such unpromising material, Sittenfeld fashions a novel which is almost a page turner, thanks to the quality of the writing. Sittenfeld manages to make simple events compelling.

One interesting technical point is that while the novel begins with the protagonist/narrator in the present tense, as the book progresses the narrator sometimes become the protagonist as an adult reflecting back. This is done seamlessly, and provides the reader with a direct experience of the younger personality, while also providing more perspective and hints at the adult she becomes.

A loose end: the journalist distorted to some extent what Lee said (I reread to check). Certainly, I would expect Lee to point this out.

"Prep" describes in agonizing detail the coming-of-age of a teenage girl from South Bend, Indiana attending a prestigious prep school in Massachusetts called 'Ault' (rumored to be a thinly disguised version of the Groton School). Lee Fiora is painfully self-conscious and observant, overthinking everything and suffering in frozen passivity as a result. She is the polar opposite of a person who 'shoots from the hip'. Her obsessive scrutiny and judgmental behavior prevent her from acting spontaneously and possibly even (gasp) enjoying herself.

But Lee is not an entirely unsympathetic character. The cloistered environment of the prep school just enhances and exaggerates the angst that she's struggling with, and though she's sometimes infuriating in her inability to assert herself, I believe most readers will have some empathy for her. Who among us was never burdened by insecurities and anxieties, during adolescence especially? After all, the root emotion here is 'fear', though author Curtis Sittenfeld seldom (if at all) mentions it directly. And for a young person on scholarship from the Midwest, away from home for the first time and placed among the spoiled and the privileged, with their wealth and pedigreed yuppie status, there's plenty for this uninitiated person to be afraid of.

Ms. Sittenfeld captures all of this splendidly, though it takes Lee some time into adulthood before she gains the perspective of distance to see it for herself; at which point some of her realizations are stark and abrupt. For example, upon mentioning her Ault School crush years later to her adult roommate, she is stunned when said roommate suddenly laughs: "Cross Sugarman? What kind of person has a name like that?"

Indeed. I'd been wondering the same thing throughout the entire book, and this remark made me laugh aloud. So did much of the rest of "Prep", but I was also moved as well. Don't let anyone tell you that this is a "lousy book", or that "nothing happens". "Prep" is a substantial achievement, and Curtis Sittenfeld has great writing chops.

Every year, as the season changes to summer, I switch from non-fiction to novels. This year's summer sleeper does not disappoint. "Prep" is a beautifully written account of the life of a middle-class scholarship student from South Bend, Indiana at "Ault," a New England prep school remarkably similar to Groton. Lee Fiora, in perhaps her last act of ambition, applied to various boarding schools and convinced her mattress-salesman father and bookkeeper mother to allow her to head East. Lee goes from being an outstanding student at South Bend public schools to a mediocre student at Ault. Embarrassed by her background (and by her family itself, particularly in a memorable section on "Parents Weekend"), Lee's insecurity hampers her from truly being a part of Ault. Lee secretly pines for one of the class stars, but doubts that she is the sort whom he would ever want to marry.

Sittenfeld asks us to question whether schools like Ault, while clearly providing an excellent education, are really the best place for teenagers. The insularity of these schools, coupled with the wealth of most of the students, leads to a narrowness of outlook. I came away believing that Lee Fiora would probably have been better served by the fictitious "Marvin Thompson High School," where she would have been a star student and involved in school activities -- and would have undoubtedly wound up at the very same university she ultimately attended.

Before picking up "Prep," I wondered if it would resonate with one who attended (30 years ago) an overcrowded New York City public high school. The truth is that you need not have been a prep school student to understand or relate to this book. Every high school is its own miniature web of intrigue, with tangled relationships, ins and outs, the cool and the nerds, and a hierarchy of status which vanishes after the graduates go their separate ways. Boarding school no doubt exaggerates the hothouse atmosphere, but even prep school graduates are likely to agree with Lee Fiora that "as more and more years passed . . . the time I had known any of my classmates, would feel decreasingly significant; eventually, it would be only a backdrop to our real lives."

Curtis Sittenfeld's debut novel is engaging and well worth your time.

Lee Fiora is a typical middle-class girl from Indiana who talks her family into letting her attend Ault, a prestigious boarding school in the east, for which she has won a scholarship. Lee, in her teenage, midwestern naivety believes that going away to school will mirror the beautiful pictures on the school brochure...groups of students chatting benignly in front of brick buildings; endless games of basketball and lacrosse; girls in sweater sets and boys in blue blazers. What she finds is a completely insular world where money defines you, even though is is expressly never spoken about and popularity is defined by who is the most casually rich, beautiful, and sarcastic.

A fun and outgoing girl at home, Lee immediately becomes wary of her surroundings and is withdrawn into herself, unable to express what she really wants because of her intimidation of their way of life. Anyone who was on the fringes of their high school class will resonate with Lee's thoughts on her unability to fully participate...she never goes to dances or social events and it takes her a full year to find one great friend.

Throughout her high school experience, she is in love with Cross Sugarman, the 'golden boy' who helps her during a mall field trip when she gets her ears pierced by herself and faints. They never really have a real relationship, but she can't help herself from holding a candle for him. There are many other fascinating side characters in the story - her best friend Martha, dorm-mates Dede, Aspeth, and Sin-Jun, and her own family who remain her solid link to the regular world from which she came.

By the time she is a senior, Lee has made a place for herself at Ault and is finally comfortable, if not with who she really is, at least with what she has become there. Then, in one instant, her entire painstakingly won work of climbing the social ladder falls apart around her and she's left to discover what really matters in her life.

I loved this book and highly recommend it!

In any society, there are outsiders, people who do not fit in. The protagonist is an outsider who very much wants to fit in to her prep school, to an extent which is self defeating. As a consequence, she leads a dull life. She is observant, but not especially insightful. From such unpromising material, Sittenfeld fashions a novel which is almost a page turner, thanks to the quality of the writing. Sittenfeld manages to make simple events compelling.

One interesting technical point is that while the novel begins with the protagonist/narrator in the present tense, as the book progresses the narrator sometimes become the protagonist as an adult reflecting back. This is done seamlessly, and provides the reader with a direct experience of the younger personality, while also providing more perspective and hints at the adult she becomes.

A loose end: the journalist distorted to some extent what Lee said (I reread to check). Certainly, I would expect Lee to point this out.

"Prep" describes in agonizing detail the coming-of-age of a teenage girl from South Bend, Indiana attending a prestigious prep school in Massachusetts called 'Ault' (rumored to be a thinly disguised version of the Groton School). Lee Fiora is painfully self-conscious and observant, overthinking everything and suffering in frozen passivity as a result. She is the polar opposite of a person who 'shoots from the hip'. Her obsessive scrutiny and judgmental behavior prevent her from acting spontaneously and possibly even (gasp) enjoying herself.

But Lee is not an entirely unsympathetic character. The cloistered environment of the prep school just enhances and exaggerates the angst that she's struggling with, and though she's sometimes infuriating in her inability to assert herself, I believe most readers will have some empathy for her. Who among us was never burdened by insecurities and anxieties, during adolescence especially? After all, the root emotion here is 'fear', though author Curtis Sittenfeld seldom (if at all) mentions it directly. And for a young person on scholarship from the Midwest, away from home for the first time and placed among the spoiled and the privileged, with their wealth and pedigreed yuppie status, there's plenty for this uninitiated person to be afraid of.

Ms. Sittenfeld captures all of this splendidly, though it takes Lee some time into adulthood before she gains the perspective of distance to see it for herself; at which point some of her realizations are stark and abrupt. For example, upon mentioning her Ault School crush years later to her adult roommate, she is stunned when said roommate suddenly laughs: "Cross Sugarman? What kind of person has a name like that?"

Indeed. I'd been wondering the same thing throughout the entire book, and this remark made me laugh aloud. So did much of the rest of "Prep", but I was also moved as well. Don't let anyone tell you that this is a "lousy book", or that "nothing happens". "Prep" is a substantial achievement, and Curtis Sittenfeld has great writing chops.

PREP is a touching, perhaps disturbing, and semi-autobiographical (the author having attended elitist Groton) story of a middle class thirteen-year-old from South Bend, IN, Lee Fiora, who wrangles her way into Ault, a fictitious, prestigious boarding school near Boston, on a near-full scholarship. It is a tale of caution: be careful because you might get what you hope for.

Lee could have never known the extent to which her social and economic class would make her an outsider among her fellow students. She becomes almost paralyzed in her ability to act and interact. She fears violating social protocols and how she will be perceived so much that she keeps largely to herself, limiting her speech to the perfunctory. Fortunately, she finds a somewhat sympathetic and understanding roommate. The story is told form Lee's perspective, so her self-abnegation is painfully evident. In addition, she distances herself from her family back in Indiana, regarding them mostly as an embarrassment.

There is no doubt that the author captures the reality of the teen-age world - the brutal social dividing that occurs - although that is hardly limited to elite boarding schools. The prerogatives and assumptions of class are clearly delineated. The elite and their offspring operate on the assumption that they "belong," requiring no anxious introspection.

Despite these realities, it can seem that Lee's passivity and distress are just a bit overdrawn. Given Lee's daily ordeal, one can wonder how she manages to complete four years. Not entirely in character, the author has Lee stepping forward and cutting hair for students during her freshman year. Of course, that becomes expected and merely accentuates social differences; her "customers" expect her to sweep up the hair.

There is little plot to speak of, but a thread throughout her four years is her incessant pining for class hunk, Cross Sugarman. Though she finally "hooks up" with him in a series of late-night rendezvous her last year, she is eventually forced to acknowledge the impossibilities.

The book transcends teen-age angst. It really is a very thoughtful and prescient examination of a character facing very difficult social circumstances, experiencing a great deal of self-doubt, with limited means to overcome realities. As made painfully clear in a situation near the end of her last year, any attempt, no matter how mild, to shed light on the consequences of the assumptions and machinations of elites will result in the closing of their ranks and the ostracism of the offending party.

I think I know Lee, the protagonist of "Prep" after being "in her mind" during the reading of this book, and for the four years time of her studies at Ault . I cannot say however that I am sure she is a person I would like to be friends with or that I understand her actions. In fact there are many times in the story where Lee explains her actions but I keep thinking that this is a girl I am not sure I would get along with. There were so many upsetting things in this book, upsetting for Lee and for the readers as well who want to see her come out... enjoy the world. Yet, I had a hard time with a part like the newspaper interview - as much as I was sorry for Lee, getting carried away I was upset at her for not being careful.

In spite of the seemingly sweet nature of this book subject (high school years...) and the fact that it is a good read and very well written, the subject is truly uneasy and quite disturbing at times. The main issue is not about being a scholarship student among other wealthy students, but more about growing up, coming out to the world - and this is never easy, especially when you have to do it alone. I myself felt these struggles only at a later stage, when I went to the University. Facing the fact that you are no longer the best student or "special". Anyone here is as smart as you are, and a lot of them are a lot smarter. Lee describes a harder battles who are not only academic and at a much younger stage.

One of the happiest moments in the story is the moment of the bond being made between Lee and Martha, a bond that was never broken during Lee's time at Ault. This connection was so strong it manages to ease out and smooth some of the harder parts in the story.

The main asset of this book is that it is totally candid, honest and real, with no sweet soapy descriptions. At times I felt however that the conclusions and realizations Lee goes through are far more mature for her age and could only be accepted if they were to be acheived at a later age.

and also... I am so happy I am an adult.

I am suprised at the amount of extremely negative reviews. I absolutely found this story engrossing, if not totally believable; having not attended a private school in high school I could not directly relate to the emotions of an adolescent in the same type setting that I experienced my freshman year in college (we did the assasination game, even!)

What I liked about it is that it described segments of Lee's life--and things that stood out to her, as a teenager; I DO think this is an accurate reflection of being a teenage girl: being overly critical of yourself and others, thinking you know a lot more than you do, being moody and bitchy to your parents, having a crushes on other students, etc. To me it definitely read more like a diary or memoir, but I absolutely appreciate it as a novel because after the James Frey debacle (and perhaps now Augusten Burroughs?), I'd rather read someone's "enhanced" memoir as fiction that a "fiction based on a true story" as memoir.

I definitely found myself a little dissatisfied with the outcome of some storylines, but that, too, is life. Sometimes there is no climax; things just end or you quit caring about the outcome.

However, I agree with the issue of timeline. It was never clear when this is to have taken place, which I thought hurt the story. The phrase "hooking up" definitely was not being used before just about everyone and their dog had a cell phone. I also found the incredibly long paragraphs to be a bit much and think the editors could have spent a little more time--I found myself skimming some passages. I also agree that there seemed to be little change in Lee over the course of her time at Ault--those four years of anyone's life are very formulative, and I didn't feel that she learned or changed much at all. I kept hoping for a bit of an epiphany, at the least.

Regardless, it kept me up until the wee hours of the morning and I find myself still thinking about long after I was done. Definitely not a waste of my time, that's for sure.

Almost all books feature a main character who stands out from the crowd--someone with a sadder or happier or more talented or more unusual life than most of us. This is one of the few books I've read where the main character is not like that, in fact, Lee is a bit of a wallflower. She never once goes to dances, she tries very hard to not stand out, she harbors a crush on a jerk who takes advantage of her, but she doesn't brilliantly expose him or make him pay, she is petty at times, as most of us are, and she is very convincingly a a high school student. The very point of this book is not that she changed much during high school, but that she stayed herself. The writing is deadpan---it's written as many high school diaries are---a bit hung up on feelings, a bit melodramatic at times. Lee's family back home in South Bend seem totally real to me. She chose a life that took her away from them, and it's to the book's credit you never completely decide if that was a good idea or not.

Most of all, the book's message on subtle class differences really rings true. I recently have been debating with myself whether to look at prep school scholarships for my sons, and this book certainly helped me decide. They would never really fit in. There is a line drawn here in America, which perhaps you don't see plainly unless you are close to it---the very rich and the very poor might not see it, but those who live close to it certainly do. We might say we feel we are all equal, but of course that's not the case. If it is, why are schools not all equally funded?

I was surprised to see this book didn't have a higher rating by readers than it did. I felt it was a real triumph---a wonderfully written and very unique book.

Lee Fiora is the quintessential adolescent struggling to find her place. This novel was so true to my memories of high school, of the insecurity everyone feels but tries to hide, of the fact that people think shy people are stuck-up, not insecure and frozen in their insecurity. Lee gets the reader to buy into her own hype--the reader starts believing she is inherently boring and unlikable and doesn't fit in with her rich boarding school classmates. The whole book is about Lee learning how wrong she is, and how she's paralyzed her own social life by believing in her own brand of insecurity. Lee agonizes about every social ineraction she has, rehashing ths situation and trying to see what she did right or wrong. I'm sure I'm not the only person who relates to this self-doubt.

A few reviewers have talked about Lee as "unlikable." Well, yeah, how many adolescents are totally likeable? Of course she's not charming and winning. She doesn't believe in herself and she's trying to (painfully) find her own place in the world of her boarding school.

Although there are sexual themes, I recommend this book to mature teenage readers, as well as to those for whom high school isn't too distant a memory. Sittenfeld has created a memorable novel about coming-of-age and relating to one's peers.

My mother lent me this book a while ago mentioning that I might enjoy it as I had a somewhat similar experience to the main character. I didn't go to boarding school, but in 7th grade I was pulled away from my public school friends and sent to an equally expensive upscale private school. I didn't want to go, and it took some time (and a lot of hard work) to acclimate, especially since most of the students had been at the school since Pre-K (when they graduated, they were in the exclusive 14 year club). Even though I'm a male, the time period (though they never explicitly spell out when the book takes place, but it's fairly clear it's in the mid 90's) lined up perfectly with the time I was having my own high school experience.

Going further and making the world one where the protagonist is not only going to a boarding school outside of her means, but CHOOSES to go, was completely open to some wonderful story telling and insights. The only problem is that your protagonist needs to EARN the right to command your attention for 400 pages.Sadly, Lee Fiora was neither compelling, enjoyable, well rounded, or worthy of being the lead in a short story, much less a novel.

The biggest problem I have with this book is one I see creeping up in other popular young adult novels featuring female protagonists. These leads see to have a sense of entitlement that they offer something special, yet they never live up to that promise. Lee suffers a worse fate in that the book is clearly told from her adult self. She has had time to look at her life at Ault with PERSPECTIVE. Yet, her adult self clearly has learned nothing. The idea that the adult Lee still holds her relationships up against her "relationship" with Cross is disgusting. We all act stupidly and selfishly in high school. We all have things we'd like to have done differently. We'd like to have acted in ways that don't embarrass us when we look back on them as adults.

No adult female with any kind of self respect or brain would look back on what happened with Cross with ANY kind of rose colored glasses. They'd recognize that they have been used (and that they used that person a little themselves). They might not REGRET the experience (because they could chalk it up to a learning experience), but they certainly wouldn't feel this was deep, true love that occurred. The idea that she can't find the right man because she keeps trying to find Cross is so depressing and ridiculous that if I'd known the book was going that way, I'd never have started.

Furthermore, the one likeable character in the novel (Martha) loses her only good characteristics in inexplicable developments throughout the book. Her last one happening a mere 10 or 12 pages from the end of the book. Her revelation makes her seem stupid and shallow when heretofore she hasn't been painted as such. Now, one might argue that's the point, it's the change her character makes, but it doesn't jive with any of her previous actions or interactions. Though, truth be told, it's unfathomable why she (or ANYONE) would want to be friends or roommates with Lee.

Having been in a similar situation (but I'd argue worse off since I didn't CHOOSE to go to a school like that, but HAD to), I find it personally offensive for a character like Lee to exist. The entire novel she feels she secretly is offering up this caustic, sarcastic, funny girl that hides behind shyness (but if you got to know her...you'd see all that she has to offer). She is none of these things. She is selfish and insecure, with ZERO personality save for one or two jokes here and there. She lets her self worth be defined by the "man of her dreams" and a friend she hasn't earned. Seeing so many of these types of female characters pop up in novels, it truly makes me wonder where the proper role models are for young teenage girls.

Walking through the typical young adult section of a bookstore, there are usually five, maybe even ten, books about a teenage girl, perhaps from a small town, who transfers from that wee little town to a prep school.

Typically, this prep school is in Connecticut, or Massachusetts. Typically, the girl starts out struggling, tries to fit in with the popular crowd, misses her hometown, faces many moral problems, and meets a handsome, promising young prep school boy who shows her the ways of love. Seeing the plot of Curtis Sittenfeld's PREP for the first time, a normal reader would write it off as being another cliché prep school book.

There's where they'd be wrong.

PREP is a searing, creative look at the life of one small-town girl, Lee Fiora, who comes from her home in South Bend, Indiana, to Ault, a prep school in Massachusetts. Exposed to many new kinds of ideas and people, Lee stands on the thin line between misery and naivety as she explores all that her new life has to offer.

Sittenfeld writes about teen angst in a way that doesn't try to make it seem petty or unimportant; she embraces it, and fully understands it. This is what sets the book apart from many other titles. Wallowing in loneliness and heartbreak, the reader feels as if Lee is actually a part of them, and that they are experiencing all of the awkward and horrible events that are occurring in the story.

Lee acts as an opposite-gender Holden Caulfield, the main male character in J.D. Salinger's classic novel The Catcher in the Rye. She takes everything with a grain of salt and a little bit of dry humor while making wise observations well beyond her years. PREP is bound to become a classic, for its brutally honest interpretation of a time that plagues all of us: high school.

Reviewed by: Amanda Dissinger

Loved this book; it brought back painful adolescent memories of extreme selfconsciousness, when you're dying to be noticed and to be invisible at the same time. And Curtis Sittenfeld is a first rate writer too. Even the most minor characters (like Aubrey) are completely recognizable and memorable. For those who complained that Lee did not change much over the course of 4 years, well that's real life isn't it? It's more novel-like to think there will be some great transformation but it's more recognizable that we mostly remain the same even if we don't much like the self we are.

My only negative was, what time period was this novel supposed to represent? It seemed like the late 80s because the parents drove a Datsun, there was no Internet, cell phone and people still played cassettes along with CDs. On the other hand, from my memory, at that time "hooking up" (as a term and a concept) thankfully did not exist among teens. Otherwise, highly enjoyable read

Siitenfeld has captured so many of the nuances of high school life: the insecurity, the self-doubt, the struggle to find others one feels comfortable with, the perpetual embarrassment, the conflicts with parents, the academic difficulties, and of course, the failed relationships. This book was different from other coming-of-age novels in that it was actually a page-turner filled with unexpected twists and turns. There were parts that I found somewhat cheesy, but overall, I really identified and understood this often-flawed protagonist Lee Fiora. I was rooting for her, even when she made the wrong decisions and said the wrong things. I should warn some readers, though: This book definitely takes a turn in the last 130 pages or so, and becomes pretty explicit and inappropriate for young readers. Parents should preview this book before recommending it for high school age girls, because without some guidance, I think the last part of the book -- which does have some valuable lessons to teach girls in particular -- could be misunderstood by young readers as something that people SHOULD do rather, rather than something which they should not. Adolescence is complicated, and unfortunately, we often learn lessons after we've made mistakes. Sittenfeld articulates this quite well, and I commend her efforts on this one. Although flawed at times, this novel does prove to be a very enjoyable read.

Imagine, if you will, leaving Indiana at fourteen, by yourself, for one of the nation's elite boarding schools in Massachusetts. Over the next four years, you never distinguish yourself--not academically, athletically, or socially--though once you were the very definition of overachiever. Though miserable, you never return home, and you never do anything to salve the pain of staying.

This is exactly the situation Curtis Sittenfeld creates for Lee Fiora in her best-selling Prep, a first person narrative style that is, in fact, a fictional memoir, told years later. A masterpiece of teen angst, Prep sits on the same continuum as Hairstyles of the Damned but at the opposite pole. Not only is this the feminine perspective, but it is also the overly analytical introspection of a true introvert, which some might misconstrue as narcissism.

Prep is a classic fish out of water story. Ault, the fictional boarding school Lee attends, is populated by the beautiful and the wealthy, and Lee, a scholarship student, is neither. When she arrives, her desire to conform, to fit in, causes a paralyzing anxiety from which she never recovers. Lee, the once outgoing student, becomes the passive receptor who cannot even muster the courage to be passive aggressive. Presented time and again with opportunities to do something, anything, Lee instead chooses to do nothing for fear of revealing herself to be a fraud.

In the end, Lee's first love, Cross Sugarman, diagnoses Lee's problem. "'I'm just saying that--' His tone softened. 'That I bet things would be easier for you if you either realized you're not that weird or decided that being weird isn't bad.'" If only every teen could come to that realization. Conformity is the bugaboo of adolescence, but those who come through it without being broken by it, often have the most to offer society as individuals, not just cogs in the machinery.

I wish I could give Curtis Sittenfeld 10 stars for this book. Whenever someone asks what my favorite book is, I say Prep. It's a perfect combination of good writing (also: very plain writing, she sure knows how to tell a story without preening) and juicy, fun high school stuff. This book took me right back to my awkward school days, and I don't know why that's a desirable thing, but when you're reading this book, it just is. Maybe because you can think: Thank God I'm not in that place any more!

I adore this book and would love to go back in history and read it for the first time again.

Also: she does a nice reading. I saw her here in Seattle once and she was so unassuming and interesting and funny.

Title: Prep
Authors: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Reading Level: Young Adult
Released: November 2005
Rating: 4/5

Summary:
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 pristine mowed 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.

Review:
I've heard this book was one of those books where you either love it or hate it. Me? I was closer to loving it then hating it. Actually I pretty much LOVED it, except for a few things that bothered me, but I'll get to those later.

When I first started Prep, I really didn't know what to expect. So I was kind of surprised by what happened in the novel, and not necessarily in a bad way. Lee was one of those girls who always felt left out, who thought she wasn't ugly nor pretty, smart nor dumb. So when she came to boarding school, I, well, I pitied Lee as a character. She was always so negative and didn't know how lucky she were. She was, shall I say, clueless. It was a bit annoying, but when I thought about, I think that it was necessary for Lee to be annoying in her character to fit the part in this novel. If that makes sense.

Throughout Lee's time at Ault, she grew. She grew so much, it was crazy. Every time a new chapter started, which was not a lot of times considering there were eight chapters and 400 pages in the book, Lee had grown up immensely. And I loved to see Lee grow up, actually I loved to see any character grow up, like through a long period time, in any book. Which is probably why I love the Jessica Darling Series so much. Anyway, back to Prep.

Sittenfeld's writing was close to impeccable. I really enjoyed her style of writing. Her writing made me think and it made me curious. I had no idea what would happen next. Something that bothered me was the ending, I was hoping for a little more, Lee was telling us what happened since she left Ault about everybody she ran into, but I really didn't know what happened to her. Also there were times in the novel when I got so frustrated with Lee were I just wanted to rip out the pages. but nonetheless, this was an excellent read that I highly recommend.

We remember the books that really disappoint us almost as well as the ones we loved. The description was enticing. Who doesn't like a good "Coming of Age" story? I was frustrated in the final pages feeling this book might have been so much more. Lee Fiora is a whiny, snivelly character without the slightest hint of a backbone. There's very little about her that makes you want her to be successful and by the end of the book, her enthusiasm for being a doormat and "whoa is me" attitude made me sympathize more with her classmates. I thought some of the secondary characters were interesting, if a little two-dimensional and the book was well-plotted. I was extremely disappointed by the ending. To compare this to Catcher in the Rye is an unimaginable stretch. I will probably read more by this author not because I appreciate her characters, but because she writes beautifully. This is why I stayed to the end.

Curtis Sittenfeld reminds the adult reader why many people opt on school reunion websites NOT to do high school all over again if given the opportunity (nevermind wanting to go back in time in order to play more sports, take life less seriously, study more, etc.).

Curtis captures the self-absorption and insecurity of teen angst in such a way that the reader relives this uncomfortable phase of life along with Lee. I like that Sittenfeld (I don't know to what extent this book may be read as autobiographical or at least, semi-autobiographical) does not idealize Lee and use authorial revisionism (if it is in part autobiographical) to cast her in the best light. Lee can be a self-serving, insensitive jerk. She can also be sweet intermittenly. Like the rest of us, she's a mixed bag; however, it's apparent that high school was not her hour of self-actualization.

This is not a feel-good book, but it is a brutally honest portrayal of an insecure teen. Lee's self-talk borders on paranoia, and she is constantly overanalyzing and overreaching in her perceptions and conclusions. She is not always a likable character, yet I never wavered from wishing her well and taking her part. The scene where her parents visit during her junior year is one of the most painful in the book. Lee was trying too hard to be one of the Ault students and had none too subtly let her parents know about her newfound sophistication. Her dad did not take kindly to this attitude. Later, this brutal scene would be rendered less awful (and almost humorously) in family folklore.

As I wrote before, I appreciate Sittenfeld's honesty and her willingness to let this character be seen at her worst. High school wasn't the worst time in my life (although it was no bowl of cherries), but I'd definitely choose NOT to do it all over again if given the opportunity. Sittenfeld's "Prep" helps confirm this choice.

I was excited to read this book, waited months reading reviews and gearing up for a real ride. I was disappointed. After finishing what was a seemingly endless story focusing on the four years of Midwestern Lee and prestigious and snotty Ault academy, I was not surprised this was Sittenfeld's first novel and I was shocked that the marketeers aligned it with Salinger's masterpiece.

I did quickly take to Lee's character and as a person who attended an all-girls school and is now a high school teacher, I could immediately see how dead-on the description of that first year was especially from the young woman's point of view. My problem began when time started passing and Lee, so full of potential and possibility, became this static slug of a character, slogging through her life and not growing or learning much. In the beginning, I was led to believe that Lee went to Ault to change her life and realize things about herself she couldn't in her boring life in Indiana. The last three years at Ault betrayed any of that hope.

In concept, the novel was good. Teenage years are tumultuous, to the point that reality just does not seem real. Because of that I thought there would be so many 3-dimensional characters, good and bad, to really make the fictional gauntlet of high school as interesting and heart-rending as it can be in reality. This heroine, though, was boring and made me wish the book was about some of the other characters. Personally, I wanted to read more about Martha and that worried me a little. Whenever secondary characters start stealing the heroine's thunder, there might be some problems brewing.

I started reading this really wanting to like it. I ended up feeling that the best thing about it was the textured preppy belt cinching the cover. High school is a colorful place to be. It's a shame I can only describe this novel as bland, flat, and prosaic.

Overall I thought Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld was a very good read. The book followed the life of Lee, a highschool student who convinced her parents to allow her to go to boarding school, the book digs into the raw emotions that many high school kids experience throughout their high school experience. I am also a high schooler that also goes to a boarding school, I can closely relate to some, if not all, the emotions Lee feels throughout the duration of her time at Ault, the boarding school she attends. Sittenfeld did a nice job keeping the book interesting, and I found myself carrying it around with me everywhere I went. Many books are very predictable, but this book kept twisting and turning and constantly kept me wanting more, but I was pretty disappointed when the book did not end the way I was hoping it would.

Prep tells the story of a young Midwestern girl's four years at an elite New England Prep school. I ended up really liking this book in large part because of the refreshingly honest portrayal of teenage adolescence complete with shocking self involvement, and the lack of a neat Hollywood ending that brought everything to a happy, satisfying close. To do that would of negated everything that preceded it, and what is so great about Lee Fiora is that she presents her story without apology. There were times reading it I wanted to smack her, but many others when I recognized and sympathized, with a familiar feeling of, "I've felt that and I've been there."

Certainly one of the most painful and realistic threads through the story are the near heartbreaking passages of a first and lasting crush.Sittenfeld manages this deftly, from the searching glances to the near life and death feelings of,'I can't live without you'. Having very little expectations when I opened this, I was surprised both by how much I liked the book, and how much the character of Lee affected me. She's one of the more complex and fascinating characters I've come across in some time.

Cincinnati-native Curtis Sittenfeld's story about a middle-class Midwestern girl's adventures as a square peg at a snooty New England prep school was less exciting to read than it was to look forward to. Make sense? Probably not, but it spares me from spelling out my slight disappointment. As I said in my title, Prep was exceedingly well-written, Sittenfeld is a fresh voice in American literature from whom we'll often hear, and the level of realism in her tale was admirable. What hurt this novel was the fact that for its considerable length, she left it a little thin on plot. The lightness of detail (in plain English not much happened through too darn much of this book) impacted the quality in ways that need not have been so. I completed this book less than an hour ago and though writing so soon after reading lets my impressions be fresh, it does deprive me of a more seasoned view. Maybe down the road I'll be less hard on Prep, but as I sit here at this moment, I can say it needed a little more to it than it had. There were several characters who richly deserved to be explored more than they were, and there were others who would resurface long after I'd forgotten about them, with no polite reminder of the context in which they'd last appeared. "Who is this?" I'd be thinking, with no help from Sittenfeld. And the matter of the cook at Ault (a school presumably secretly named by the author after a famous Cincinnati-area park)...Lee's dumping of him was harsh and went by so fast I didn't realize it had happened. For an entire chapter to be called "Townie" and have only a few anticlimactic paragraphs be about someone...that was weak. So let me say, Sittenfeld got a lot right and she made some mistakes. I did enjoy reading Prep, although Lee's parents were sketched as hicks and her father was absolutely unlikable. The novel also drifted into gross-out WAY more than I was expecting given the genre and quality. So let me conclude by saying Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld was a flawed, fine read that delivered some good characters and settings, but any acute reader will immediately sense, as I did, that elements were missing that kept this from being a great debut novel.

Prep rivets the reader from the first page until the last.
The narrator, Lee, is a 14-year old girl from a family in South Bend, Indiana, who enters the rarified world of a New England prep school. She goes from being a star in the classroom to a student of middling quality, from the middle of America to the middle of the Northeastern elite, and from middle class to the fringes of her new society. For middle class in this rarified milieu equals lower class.

Lee spends four years on the periphery of all of her class's cliques: neither popular nor unpopular, she simply exists. Yet her gift--her ability to observe the nuances of her own and her classmates behavior-is both extraordinary and unrecognized by nearly everyone (save for a perceptive individual or two) around her.

Sittenfeld tackles a subject that is almost anthema in our society: the one of class. She notices all the subtleties amongst the rich (there's dignified rich, and old rich, and simply over-the-top, laugh out loud rich). Small things--like who has flowers on their bedspreads--tell of great differences.

Not much happens in this book. Then again, that is the point. When one is in one of these small, precious, insulated and isolated environments, one thinks that this is life. Lee, at the end, realizes an entire world had gone on for the four years that she was at prep school without her realizing it. And that comforts her.

I highly recommend this book to lovers of contemporary fiction everywhere.

I found "Prep" to be deeply moving, highly readable, and quite funny all parlayed with a sweeping sadness that propels the book from start to finish. We follow protagonist Lee through 4 years of Prep school. Lee is a character we can all relate to on some level. Her lack of confidence doesn't have as much to do with her "low to middle class" social status and being on scholarship( though this doesn't help) as it does her shy, perceptive, anxious and overly sensitive personality. The relationship that she accepts will make you cringe but clearly depicts Lee's sense of herself and what she thinks she deserves. The story recalls the isolation and agony that high school can be, be it prep school or otherwise. Some of the writing passages are so wonderful that you can feel yourself right there in the back seat of that car. The few encounters between Lee and her parents are brutally honest and right on target. I wish I knew what happened to Lee after graduation but while Sittenfeld tells us the professions and fates of many of her classmates, Lee's remains curiously vague. Perhaps this is just in keeping with Sittenfeld's overall portrayal of Lee as just a "nobody from Indiana."
There is no "sugary" happy ending here: this novel is painfully honest. I loved it and highly recommend it!

What makes this book special is the author's ability to bring readers back to that insecurity, angst, and melodrama that ruled our emotions in high school. Yes, Lee Fiora was whiny and self-absorbed, but these emotions are authentic for someone of her age -- and particularly authentic for a teenage girl who finds herself in a prep school where she feels conspicuously out of place and having to study, eat, sleep, and even go to chapel with these students with whom she feels little connection.

The mistakes Lee makes along the way are painful to read. So many times I wished she'd been wiser and chose another direction, but again, these are typical of mistakes teenagers make, and even Lee acknowledges this in hindsight.

This book won't change society, and readers looking for another "Catcher in the Rye" may need to look elsewhere. However, Lee's insight and self-absorption do echo those of Holden Caulfield from time to time.