Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld
is an examination of the rarified atmosphere of the ultra-exclusive, private
prep-schools that funnel the children of the very rich or very connected into
Ivy League schools. Lee Fiora, the female protagonist is an exception, a
scholarship student.
Lee’s observations form the core of the novel. She is revolted by
and fascinated by her fellow students in equal measure. It is painful to watch
her struggle to fit in and her obsession with the school’s golden boy. Ault,
the fictional prep school she applies for and attends turns her former at-home
personality of being easy, relaxed and out-going into one of being withdrawn,
shy and agonizingly uncomfortable. It’s as if she moves through the world
without skin.
Sittenfeld’s coming of age story has been compared to Catcher in the Rye. You cringe at her inability
to see outside herself. You want her to be older, wiser. You want to sympathize,
yell at, shake and protect her simultaneously as she tries to navigate her life. You remember adolescence.
Goldberg Variations by Susan Isaacs
centers on three cousins who travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico to meet with their
estranged, super-wealthy grandmother at her invitation. The name comes from
Bach’s famous Goldberg Variations.
Inarguably one of the most famous pieces of music ever written, it contains
music that moves from soft and moody to intense and lively and everything in
between.
The title refers to the three cousins and Gloria, the grandmother.
Extremely different and yet somehow meshing. Gloria is an extremely
unsympathetic character. A hard and bitter woman, she brings the three there,
after ignoring them their entire lives, to pick a successor to manage her vast
fortune. She is in for a shock.
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