Oh, High School

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld is the first book I’ve read both in hardcover and on unabridged audio CD. In the hardcover version, I sped through it in one long night, eager to find out what all these critics were talking about. Sittenfeld was getting compared to J.D. Salinger, her character to the beloved Holden Caulfield.

I didn’t see it – not exactly. I wrote an Amazon review at the time titled, “Fine writing but not the finest ever.” Sittenfeld’s tale of a lonely middle class teen at a preppy boarding school struck me as true at times, tedious at others. After this second reading, I still feel that way.

Like the main character, Lee Fiora, I was shy in high school. Hyper-aware of everyone around me. Observant and terrified of misstepping.

But even I grew impatient with Lee as I listened to her story on CD. I wanted to shake her and say, “Get over yourself!” (I’ve been reading all the Amazon reviews and noticed several other people had this impulse.) While I was at it, I’d shake the narrator and tell her to stop using that whiny voice!

During the first few CDs, the audiobook couldn’t hold my attention. I started thinking I’d made a mistake buying it. But somewhere along the way, it drew me in. I admit I’m a sucker for coming-of-age stories, especially ones that capture so beautifully that heart-tugging regret you can feel for unrequited loves, even now that you’re a happy adult. I always wonder, what if? Even when I don’t want a different end result. The adult Lee looking back seems to feel this way, too, and I identified with that more than anything in the book.

Sittenfeld portrays that emotion, and so many others, perfectly. Perfect is a strong word, but I think I’m safe here. Lee experiences a few moments in the book when she is amazed to realize someone “gets” her. That’s the way I felt reading about Lee – Sittenfeld gets teenage girls, gets me.

This is the reason I like Prep. It outweighs the things I don’t like – the slowness, the skipping back and forth in time within a scene, the anticlimactic ending – and leaves me with a good feeling about the book. It is the reason I’m keeping this book instead of sending it back into the eBay mill. I just might want to read it again one day.