Review "I am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe
Let me start by saying that I am not a big Tom Wolfe fan. I believe I quit reading "A Man in Full" in the middle, even though it was about Atlanta (see discussion below of quitting books in the middle). Having said that, I enjoyed "I am Charlotte Simmons."
The title character is a young woman graduating first in her class in a very small town in the mountains of North Carolina. She is from a poor, devout family. She heads off to 'Dupont College' (Wolfe's version of Duke) where she finds an almost amoral undergraduate world. Charlotte is shocked to encounter a world of extremely casual sex, coed bathrooms (in her coed dorm), drinking, drugs, superstar athletes who are catered to by the college, sarcasm and viciousness. While her complete naivete is almost unbelievable in modern American society (she could not have been more sheltered if she lived on an Amish farm), Wolfe uses it to create a great contradiction with the other students on campus. And the story focuses on Charlotte's first year - would she stay above the morass of behavior around her or would she sink into it and never escape?
What does Wolfe do well as an author? He captures parts of American culture and distills it into his books, making it entertaining and easy. In this case he takes the culture of young people at college - the cussing (see post below), the music, the attitudes toward drinking and sex, the attempts to create social caste systems based on coolness, etc. and describes it well in the course of telling Charlotte's story.
What does he not do well? Most of his characters are stereotypes. He creates plausible backgrounds for them and makes a few of them grow or develop but most are surface level stereotypes of college figures - the frat guys, the geeks, the athletes, the liberal professor, etc. And I think the plot itself is OK, but not brilliant. It wasn't surprising or moving.
As a fan of college athletics I also enjoyed his insight into that world - this was one of the parts of the book I enjoyed most.
My warning is that this book contains constant cussing and graphic descriptions of sex - it is not for children.
Overall the book was enjoyable. It is more a commentary on our society than a deep, moving story but it was enjoyable.
The title character is a young woman graduating first in her class in a very small town in the mountains of North Carolina. She is from a poor, devout family. She heads off to 'Dupont College' (Wolfe's version of Duke) where she finds an almost amoral undergraduate world. Charlotte is shocked to encounter a world of extremely casual sex, coed bathrooms (in her coed dorm), drinking, drugs, superstar athletes who are catered to by the college, sarcasm and viciousness. While her complete naivete is almost unbelievable in modern American society (she could not have been more sheltered if she lived on an Amish farm), Wolfe uses it to create a great contradiction with the other students on campus. And the story focuses on Charlotte's first year - would she stay above the morass of behavior around her or would she sink into it and never escape?
What does Wolfe do well as an author? He captures parts of American culture and distills it into his books, making it entertaining and easy. In this case he takes the culture of young people at college - the cussing (see post below), the music, the attitudes toward drinking and sex, the attempts to create social caste systems based on coolness, etc. and describes it well in the course of telling Charlotte's story.
What does he not do well? Most of his characters are stereotypes. He creates plausible backgrounds for them and makes a few of them grow or develop but most are surface level stereotypes of college figures - the frat guys, the geeks, the athletes, the liberal professor, etc. And I think the plot itself is OK, but not brilliant. It wasn't surprising or moving.
As a fan of college athletics I also enjoyed his insight into that world - this was one of the parts of the book I enjoyed most.
My warning is that this book contains constant cussing and graphic descriptions of sex - it is not for children.
Overall the book was enjoyable. It is more a commentary on our society than a deep, moving story but it was enjoyable.
posted by John Ringer at
2:32 PM
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