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Prep

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"Prep" by Curtis Sittenfeld follows the story of Lee Fiora, a scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts. The narrative delves into Lee's struggles with insecurity, alienation, and self-doubt as she navigates through the complexities and awkwardness of high school life. The writing style captures the bittersweet account of Lee's coming of age, portraying her as a relatable but not always sympathetic character who grapples with fitting into her surroundings while dealing with unrequited love and teenage angst.

Set against the backdrop of a prep school, the novel offers a realistic portrayal of adolescent experiences, showcasing themes of anxiety, insecurity, and the constant struggle for acceptance and belonging. The story unfolds through Lee's perspective, providing insights into her journey of self-discovery and transformation during her years at the boarding school. The plot explores the challenges faced by Lee as she copes with feelings of isolation and inadequacy, ultimately offering a poignant reflection on the complexities of teenage life.

Characters:

The characters are complex, with Lee as the protagonist struggling with insecurity, making her both relatable and frustrating to readers.

Writing/Prose:

The prose is introspective and reflective, effectively capturing the internal struggles of the protagonist with simple yet evocative language.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot centers around a young girl, Lee Fiora, navigating her high school years at a prestigious boarding school, addressing themes of personal growth, social status, and friendships.

Setting:

The setting of the elite boarding school in Massachusetts plays a crucial role in amplifying the themes of social stratification and personal growth.

Pacing:

The pacing is slow and introspective, reflecting the episodic nature of high school experiences rather than a conventional plot progression.
I think that everything, or at least the part of everything that happened to me, started with the Roman architecture mix-up. Ancient History was my first class of the day, occurring after morning chap...

Notes:

Prep is by Curtis Sittenfeld and is her first novel.
The main character, Lee Fiora, is a 14-year-old girl from Indiana.
Lee receives a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school called Ault in Massachusetts.
The novel explores Lee's feelings of inadequacy among wealthier classmates.
Themes include growth, change, friendship, and the pressure of being a teenager.
Lee struggles with social acceptance and her identity throughout her four years at Ault.
Sittenfeld captures the awkwardness and self-consciousness typical of teenage life.
The book presents a realistic portrayal of teenage angst rather than a romanticized version.
Lee's relationships fluctuate, exposing her vulnerabilities and insecurities.
Critics noted that Lee can come off as unlikable, reflecting real adolescent self-absorption.
The narrative captures the intense social dynamics of a boarding school setting.
Many readers felt a strong sense of nostalgia while reading about Lee's high school experiences.
Prep has been compared to other coming-of-age novels like Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Content warnings include some themes of teenage angst, social anxiety, unrequited love, and mild sexual situations, which may be sensitive for some readers.

Has Romance?

There is a medium presence of romance in Prep, primarily revolving around Lee's crushes and romantic entanglements.

From The Publisher:

An insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.

Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school's glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.

As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of-and, ultimately, a participant in-their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she's a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered.

Ultimately, Lee's experiences-complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant-coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.

Praise for Prep

"Curtis Sittenfeld is a young writer with a crazy amount of talent. Her sharp and economical prose reminds us of Joan Didion and Tobias Wolff. Like them, she has a sly and potent wit, which cuts unexpectedly-but often-through the placid surface of her prose. Her voice is strong and clear, her moral compass steady; I'd believe anything she told me."-Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

"Speaking in a voice as authentic as Salinger's Holden Caulfield and McCullers' Mick Kelly, Curtis Sittenfeld's Lee Fiora tells unsugared truths about adolescence, alienation, and the sociology of privilege. Prep's every sentence rings true. Sittenfeld is a rising star."-Wally Lamb, author of She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True

Ratings (15)

Incredible (3)
Loved It (4)
Liked It (5)
It Was OK (2)
Did Not Like (1)

Reader Stats (32):

Read It (16)
Currently Reading (1)
Want To Read (9)
Not Interested (6)

2 comment(s)

Incredible
1 month

Such a great book! Totally resonated with me since I went to prep school. Writing is good too.

 
Loved It
3 months

This book was both enjoyable and painful at times. Enjoyable because Sittenfeld's protagonist so clearly communicated so many of the things I thought as a shy high school girl; painful for the same reason. Sometimes I wanted to shake Lee for being such a spineless brat, but mostly I just recognized her. I've heard people call this book Catcher in the Rye for girls, and I think there is some truth to that.

 

About the Author:

Curtis Sittenfeld is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, and Eligible, and the story collection You Think It, I'll Say It, which have been translated into thirty languages. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The…

 
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