Tom Wolfe, the master social novelist of our time, the spot-on chronicler of all things contemporary and cultural, presents a sensational new novel about life, love, and learning--or the lack of it--amid today's American colleges.
Our story unfolds at fictional Dupont University: those Olympian halls of scholarship housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition . . . Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a s... (show more)
Tom Wolfe, the master social novelist of our time, the spot-on chronicler of all things contemporary and cultural, presents a sensational new novel about life, love, and learning--or the lack of it--amid today's American colleges.
Our story unfolds at fictional Dupont University: those Olympian halls of scholarship housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition . . . Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a sheltered freshman from North Carolina. But Charlotte soon learns, to her mounting dismay, that for the upper-crust coeds of Dupont, sex, cool, and kegs trump academic achievement every time.
As Charlotte encounters the paragons of Dupont's privileged elite--her roommate, Beverly, a Groton-educated Brahmin in lusty pursuit of lacrosse players; Jojo Johanssen, the only white starting player on Dupont's godlike basketball team, whose position is threatened by a hotshot black freshman from the projects; the Young Turk of Saint Ray fraternity, Hoyt Thorpe, whose heady sense of entitlement and social domination is clinched by his accidental brawl with a bodyguard for the governor of California; and Adam Geller, one of the Millennial Mutants who run the university's "independent" newspaper and who consider themselves the last bastion of intellectual endeavor on the sex-crazed, jock-obsessed campus--she is seduced by the heady glamour of acceptance, betraying both her values and upbringing before she grasps the power of being different--and the exotic allure of her own innocence.
With his trademark satirical wit and famously sharp eye for telling detail, Wolfe draws on extensive observations at campuses across the country to immortalize the early-21st-century college-going experience. (show less)
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I thought this book was a very good, easy read. However, it was a bit of a stereotypical, one-sided view of education at a Brand-Name school in to... (show more)
I thought this book was a very good, easy read. However, it was a bit of a stereotypical, one-sided view of education at a Brand-Name school in today's society. To have a main character so innocent and unaware of pretty much anything outside of Sparta, NC was very hard to believe which, I think, rather watered down the whole book. Then, on top of that, we have jocks with no brains, frat boys who drink and screw, and freshman girls who only have one objective: to get a man anyway they can. There is very little content to back up the fact that, at a very prestigious university, a little learning might actually be taking place. It also casts a dubious shadow on the academic world as we seemed to have let an innocent creature like Charlotte fall through the cracks. However, despite all of that, it was actually a pretty good book and I would recommend it to pretty much anyone. (show less)
Tom Wolfe can scarcely hide his contempt for our generation in this book. It was evident that he hated all of his characters, even "Miz Charlotte ... (show more)
Tom Wolfe can scarcely hide his contempt for our generation in this book. It was evident that he hated all of his characters, even "Miz Charlotte Simmons." And his whole spiel about "the depressed girl" how condescending and inappropriate coming from someone who has no relevant experience!
I did not identify with any of the characters but as a college student at that time (2004) I feel personally attacked by his scathing portrait of college life. The book is also poorly written; Wolfe uses the same hackneyed phrases and words over and over again. And his "Fuck Patois" is just over the top. What is his obsession with the "solar plexus" anyway? He even misuses the phrase "could care less" in all seriousness. Someone please edit this book!
Wolfe's Bob Dylan references also reveal his age. Wolfe assumes that younger generations know nothing about Bob Dylan, that is ridiculous - everyone knows who Bob Dylan is, regardless of their age; it's just pop culture.
Wolfe may have written great books decades earlier, but with "I am Charlotte Simmons" Tom Wolfe oversteps his bounds and ends up waaaaay out of his league. He is simply too removed to create an accurate portrait of the modern college student, and clearly too prejudiced to even pretend that he cares about people our age. (show less)
This was pretty horrible in more ways than I can articulate. And I'm not talking about the shallow portrayal of college students; unfortunately, it's a pretty accurate picture of many students. What I mean is that this book doesn't seem to have made it to the editor. There were redundancies and typos on nearly every page. Tom Wolfe seems to have gotten overly excited by his newfound understanding of the college subculture and feels compelled to put in EVERY DETAIL he dug up in his researc... (show more)
This was pretty horrible in more ways than I can articulate. And I'm not talking about the shallow portrayal of college students; unfortunately, it's a pretty accurate picture of many students. What I mean is that this book doesn't seem to have made it to the editor. There were redundancies and typos on nearly every page. Tom Wolfe seems to have gotten overly excited by his newfound understanding of the college subculture and feels compelled to put in EVERY DETAIL he dug up in his research, most of them several times. The plot is dull and plodding and the protagonist is completely unlikeable and one dimensional. He writes Charlotte as some sort of Jane Austen throwback who sacrifices her intellect for popularity and a boyfriend; he celebrates this in her "triumphant" ending. Finally, the book offers a pretty disturbingly sexist portrayal of date rape, which the victim ultimately excuses as being "just in his nature." The whole time I was reading, one thought prevailed: Tom Wolfe is old, old, old. (show less)
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I didn't get to finish this book because I left it in a hotel in Ireland so I can't say if the ending would have changed my opinion of the book. You could tell the author defiantly did his research, however, I felt he was writing about our generation from an outsider's perspective. I felt he over generalized us and made us seem like a lot of over sexed, drunk, shallow individuals that don't care about other people's feelings. I didn't care for it too much so when I left the book behind in ... (show more)
I didn't get to finish this book because I left it in a hotel in Ireland so I can't say if the ending would have changed my opinion of the book. You could tell the author defiantly did his research, however, I felt he was writing about our generation from an outsider's perspective. I felt he over generalized us and made us seem like a lot of over sexed, drunk, shallow individuals that don't care about other people's feelings. I didn't care for it too much so when I left the book behind in Ireland I didn't bother to go to the store to re-buy it. (show less)
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Io sono Charlotte Simmons
Charlotte Simmons. Bella. Ingenua. Intelligente.Idealista. La figlia dell'America di Capra. Giunge alla Dupont University. Non l'America di Bush. Ma il Mondo. Mammona. Il serpente dell'Eden.
Il lato oscuro dell'Uomo, che c'è, ce stato e sempre sarà. Il prediligere la forma alla sostanza. L'istinto alla ragione. La giungla alla compassione.
Charlotte cade. Non perchè si riduce ad oggetto sessuale ma per la rinuncia ai suoi valori, confondendosi nella massa informe. Finita la partita, nessuno si ricorderà più della ragazza di Jojo.
E ciò avviene per troppi motivi, l'insicurezza, il voler fuggire dalla propria terra, il disprezzo per la sua famiglia, sintetizzabili in uno solo. La paura di essere, che la fa perdere nel conformismo dell'esistere.
E' un libro che mi ha fatto male. Non per me. Sono un'idealista sceso a patti con il Reale. A volte combatto i giganti chiamandoli mulini a vento. Altre mi limito ad oliare meccanismi o a infilar tra loro un granello di sabbia. Piu spesso scelgo un angolo d'Inferno, fingendo che sia il Paradiso.
Ma conosco una Charlotte Simmons. E temo per lei.
Alessio Brugnoli about 1 year agoThis book has been added to these lists:
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