Curtis Sittenfeldâ€™s debut novel, Prep, is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of

Prep: A Novel

Curtis Sittenfeldâ€™s debut novel, Prep, is 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 schoolâ€™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 ofâ€“and, ultimately, a participant inâ€“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 sheâ€™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, Leeâ€™s experiencesâ€“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

â€œCurtis 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 unexpectedlyâ€“but oftenâ€“through the placid surface of her prose. Her voice is strong and clear, her moral compass steady; Iâ€™d believe anything she told me.â€â€”Dave Eggers, author ofÂ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

â€œSpeaking in a voice as authentic as Salingerâ€™s Holden Caulfield and McCullersâ€™ Mick Kelly, Curtis Sittenfeldâ€™s Lee Fiora tells unsugared truths about adolescence, alienation, and the sociology of privilege. Prepâ€™s every sentence rings true. Sittenfeld is a rising star.â€â€”Wally Lamb, author ofÂ Sheâ€™s Come UndoneÂ andÂ I Know This Much Is True

Country	USA
Brand	Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer	Random House Trade Paperbacks
Binding	Paperback
PartNumber	9780812972351
Color	White
IsAdultProduct
Height	7.95
Length	5.11
Weight	0.70106999316
Width	0.9
ReleaseDate	2005-11-22
NumberOfItems	1

Prep: A Novel

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