About this title: In Tom Wolfe's morality tale, his innocent heroine, Charlotte Simmons, is an earnest freshman at the fictional Dupont University. Charlotte is shocked by the campus goings-on--sex, drugs, rock & roll, and worse--and by the amoral, high-living students she encounters: her roommate is a snooty rich girl with no morals, and (in a graphically described scene) Charlotte loses her virginity to a caddish heartbreaker. A sexual scandal and a sports scandal concentrate the plot, as Charlotte endures a series of trials, at the end of which she emerges older, wiser, and in control. Wolfe's novel takes ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 11/2004
ISBN-13:9780374281588ISBN:0374281580
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 688 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
"(SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!! BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!) FINALLY finished I Am Charlotte Simmons. I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't dragged out my reading for so long. I found myself totally offended at the end of the book because Charlotte did not maintain one girl friend in the entire story and all of the girls in the novel were either stereotypical sorority types, shallow, gossips or over the top radical. And her life during her first year of college completely revolved around her relationships with three men. I was so infuriated with Charlotte when she got her terrible first semester grades. And by her paralysis after being so hurt by Hoyt. Maybe I'm just completely insensitive. In ways, i really got where Tom Wolfe was coming from with his representation of college life, but he managed to take every stereotype to such an extreme and he is surely out of touch. don't get me started with the ending. i must be missing something. I love you lauren."
"Well ... I had never read any Tom Wolfe before. I had read and heard several things about this book - namely, how Wolfe researched by exploring college culture, attending parties and interviewing students and such. The resulting fiction is a paltry attempt at immersion journalism at best. I know, I know, Wolfe wasn't trying to tell a true story (and naturally, no one compares to my journalistic hero Leon Dash) but instead write a fictional piece exploring the seamier side of collegiate life at an upper-crust University. At least, I think that's what he was trying to do. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the book. In fact, it was very readable and pretty entertaining. I think it just fell far short of what Mr. Wolfe feels (or hopes) he accomplished.
You can just tell by reading the book that it was written by someone who ALMOST but doesn't quite, get it. It has that outsider's perspective, but not in the loner, misunderstood sense. I'm not sure exactly how to put this but I hope this makes it clear what I am trying to say. It feels like the book was written by someone who has no idea what they are talking about, yet feels they have completely mastered the topic. Wolfe overuses tools like slang, pop culture references, etc. to try and make it seem like he really knows what he's talking about. It's like that nerdy kid who desperately tries to seem cool by doing things like liking really obscure music, or quoting the Simpson's ad nauseum, or constantly talking about their drinking habits and crazy drunken adventures. You knew that kid in college. We all did.
Anyhow, the protagonist, the titular Charlotte Simmons, is an outsider, so Wolfe's strategy does work to an extent. But she is a strangely implausible character at times, as are some of the others. And not implausible in the way that all people are, more like implausible as in some of the characters do things that are directly contradictory to their intial presentation (I am thinking of Laurie, Charlotte's best friend, in particular). Charlotte leads a life of near-constant mortification. Her embarassment, at least as written, is so intense at all times that it must be simply exhausting. It left me wondering how, in this perpetually self-conscious state, she managed to both be a genius, and have an extremely high level of confidence in both her intellect and physical appearance. This self-confidence seemed at complete odds with her extreme, even desperate desire to fit in. It was strange also, that she felt superior to everyone yet wanted to be their leader. I suppose this is not unusual, in fact it's almost cliched. But it's still strange, to me at least. The characters are poorly developed. There are actually too many characters in my opinion. They all revolve around each other and interact, but some in only the most fleeting of ways. And (THIS MIGHT RUIN IT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT) some who are introduced as being very influential in Charlotte's life are referenced only briefly again, and conflicts are never resolved.
In short, the characters, even Charlotte, are shallow. We are given the gist of what it is that Charlotte desires, and even a glimpse into her inner turmoil, but it is still unclear to me WHY she wants the things she wants, and why she seems to have two personalities - one which wants to be intellectual, one which wants to be "cool". She grows angry whenever she is recognized as one or the other, though - when around cool people she wants them to know how smart she is and vice-versa. She doesn't seem to find a way to let these two aspects of herself co-exist. Which I suppose is very typical of a college freshman. However, the resolution of the book was unsatisfying. Basically what I came away with - Smart people do stupid things, too. Duh.
Overall, it was intriguing and kept me entertained on the plane"
"I thought this book quite accurately depicted the continual decline of American culture. Of course, one must believe American culture is declining to appreciate the books non-judgmental view of it. The book shows college life the way it is on most campuses, it leaves the opinions to the reader. The plot actively follows several characters whose stories are interwoven but who really only have a couple of similarities, namely vanity and a need to be accepted, even if it means sacrificing some of their principles to get it. The male characters seem to be able to stomach it, but Charlotte struggles with it and we find ourselves wondering exactly is going to happen to 'our girl.'"
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