<p>Just wondering if any of you college mavens have read this new college novel by Tom Wolfe. The reviews I've glanced at have been pretty negative, patronizing really, and I guess I feel that I'm being unconsciably manipulated, as a reader, by the author's amazing narrative talents, but I can't seem to put it down. The picture he paints of life in an elite college, of a student body awash in alcohol and hormones, sadism, insecurity, and egotism is both disturbing and hilarious, a far cry from the "loving every minute of it" reports one encounters here and elsewhere. Just wondering if anyone here had read it, had any thoughts on it?</p>
<p>Idler,
There have been several threads about this book already in cc. I think you can probably find them by doing a search.</p>
<p>Idler, I'm reading it right now. I agree with you - I can't put it down either and am going back and forth about whether to make it "required reading" for my daughter before she goes off to college. Obviously, much in the book is dramatized but it sure does ring some bells with the discussions of student unhappiness we've had recently.</p>
<p>I am about 7/8 through the book and can't put it down either. I don't think it is on par with the author's other work, but it is fascinating. I know he used a composite of schools, but the basketball focus sure screams DUKE.</p>
<p>"BROWN: Well, tell me first what colleges you visited to do your research. </p>
<p>WOLFE: Well, I actually went across the country. I started off at Stanford. Life is almost too good there, by the way.</p>
<p>(LAUGHTER) </p>
<p>WOLFE: And then I went to the University of Michigan. Each of those places, I stayed just about a month. I stayed about a month at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and then the University of Florida in Gainesville, plus some shorter trips to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and a couple of day trips elsewhere."</p>
<p>Despite spending specific research times at the schools that he mentioned in the interview, and the acknowledgments in the book itself, I recall reading something mentioning that Wolfe has a daughter (I think it was a daughter) that graduated from Duke in the last couple of years. If so, he's clearly familiar with Duke and might explain why he doesn't mention it as a specific "research" source or in his acknowledgments.</p>
<p>I've read the book -- was alternatingly intrigued and appalled. In some respects I found it to be vintage Wolfe (I'm a huge fan of "Right Stuff" and "Bonfires," less so for "Man in Full"); in other respects, I found it to be much more obviously manipulatively than his other works and sensationalized (in the "doesn't ring true" kind of way).</p>
<p>Clearly, he's depicting a composite of various universities, but it's hard to see how it isn't "mostly" Duke and Stanford.</p>
<p>I read the book in a quickly because of personal interest (D going to college) and because he is a storyteller. But I find his characters 1d and unbelievable, which limits the personal interest for me. Remember the D.A. guy in "bonfire" who was always checking his muscles? Horrible stereotype. Even Charlotte, in the latest book, doesnt really ring true. But I bet the description of her depression is close to the mark.</p>
<p>Thanks for the search tip Sokkermom--I paricularly liked someone's comment that it illustrates how hard it is for college students to find an ethical and moral foundation to base decisions on.</p>
<p>Based on the descriptions of the campus, the ravishing beauty of the campus, the physical setting is pretty clearly Duke, and the basketball stuff, too, though that might well be Stanford, I suppose. As for the overall "feel," though, I do think it's a composite, which uncomfortably reminded me a bit of my own college days decades ago, memories which had been self-edited over the years.</p>
<p>Yes, one-dimensional, stereotyped. I remember being infuriated by the tone of "From Bauhaus to Our House" some years ago, so glib and unwilling to give the good equal footing with the horrid, which he articulates as few can. Still, I suppose it could fairly be called a satire, a satirical novel, and you don't look for well-rounded characters there so much.</p>
<p>Idler, yes, I have had a few college days flashbacks myself while reading the book. :)</p>
<p>The interesting part to me was that Wolfe put the school in Chester, PA, and then talked about how beautiful it was. Chester is a dump, although there are pretty areas in the rest of suburban Phila.</p>
<p>Frosh daughter read it in a couple of days before her dad could get to it!</p>
<p>Plus Wolfe won the London Literary Review "bad s3x" award for the worst written depiction of s*xual activity in a book published in 2004, which didn't make me very eager to read it. (<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/12/13/odd.literature.sex.reut/%5B/url%5D">http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/12/13/odd.literature.sex.reut/</a> )</p>
<p>DudeD,</p>
<p>You are right, looks like the old guy's daughter did go to Duke. I don't know when, however, because he was 74 when he wrote the book.</p>
<p>When he was asked in another interview about this, this is how he responded:</p>
<p>"Bloomberg: A lot of people assume that Dupont is based on Duke. Is there any truth to that? </p>
<p>Wolfe: This has come up so often in the form of a syllogism: ``Tom Wolfe's daughter graduated from Duke, ergo the book is about Duke.'' But it's not Duke. I never went there to do research because my daughter was there and she didn't want me hanging around. "</p>
<p>This came up on Duke's web site when I did a search. It looks like there were several other references to the book when it was first published.</p>
<p>I read it, D has it now. I also read Pledged by Alexandra Robbins, which is set largely at my old school, SMU. Both paint a pretty dismal picture of life on college campuses. I think they both take the worst of the worst and make a novel of it. It happens, but it's not the norm.</p>
<p>1sokkermom~</p>
<p>I'm fairly certain his daughter was there quite recently (within the past 3-5 years). I'd be curious if anyone knows for certain. On the other hand, I have far too much respect for the man in the white suit to "stalk him" on the internet to see just how old he was when he sired his DD.</p>
<p>It took me longer than it ordinarily would have to finish this appalling book because I had to read it while holding my nose. If Tom Wolfe hadn't written it (and felt compelled to have his name on EVERY PAGE), no one would have given it a second reading. The characters are cardboard cutouts--and how on earth did Wolfe think he could accurately portray an 18 year old girl??? For a supposedly brilliant student, this girl is too annoying to be believed. I was so put out by her character that I (almost) rooted for bad stuff to happen to her--and I'm a woman!!!</p>
<pre><code>About 2/3 of the way through the book I thought of it as a cautionary tale, but the ending was even lousier than the ending of "A Man in Full". Again, Wolfe seemed like he thought he had written enough pages--so he just stopped.
</code></pre>
<p>Please don't spend any money to buy this book--borrow it from someone or check it out at the library. I got it for a birthday present or I never would have read it!</p>
<p>I never heard about this book until it was discussed awhile ago in this forum. I was half tempted to read the book just for kicks until I read a few literary reviews.</p>
<p>After looking at the above link from mootmom I would have no interest at all. Yuk! I would have no interest in finding out any more information about the author's own mating history either. I agree with you on that point DudeD, but for a different reason. I'm afraid mine has nothing to do with respect. LOL.</p>
<p>In the same vein, did anyone see the article about drinking and fraternities at Northwestern in yesterday's New York Times Magazine?</p>
<p>No, Kinshasha - care to summarize?</p>