<p>did anyone read this? weren't you really depressed afterwards?</p>
<p>aparently yale was one of the schools tom wolfe went to to get info for writing the book... i hope it isn't really like that</p>
<p>he may have gone to Yale, but he spent more time at other schools. Don't worry - it won't be like that :)</p>
<p>that book is AMAZING im only page 450 right now, i can't wait to finish its sooo good i recommned it to everyone.</p>
<p>what is it about?</p>
<p>I've read it...I thought it sounded more like Duke than Yale, though. Yes, it was very hard to put down, although its weight might say otherwise. :)</p>
<p>For those wondering:</p>
<p>"In I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe masterfully chronicles college sports, fraternities, keggers, coeds, and sex--all through the eyes of the titular Simmons, a bright and beautiful freshman at the fictional Dupont University." -Amazon.com</p>
<p>LOL no, yale isn't anything like that. i mean, not that i'm there yet, and there's definitely a circuit like it, but mostly the people are smart, beautiful, witty, and talented like me. just kidding.</p>
<p>I WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *10^INFINTY (HEHE lame I know) disappointed with the ENDING! I CAN'T BELIEVE HE LET ME DOWN LIKE THAT! It was as if he just STOPPED. goodness. but the rest was good, yet highly predictable at the same time. I think I'm just giving Wolfe credit because I like the way he writes, but the book isn't very strong...</p>
<p>Yale was just <em>one</em> of the sources. I think most of it came from Duke, though.</p>
<p>i def agree w/ you chidimma on the ending and the book in general. i liked bonfire of the vanities much better, but it still had the same thing w/ the ending</p>
<p>CHLOE DOES YALE--novel written by a Yale senior who writes (wrote?) a "Sex & the Elm City" column for the YDN--is coming soon. It'll be interesting to see how her take is different from Wolfe's.</p>
<p>I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS had the dubious distinction of winning the Bad Sex Award in England: <a href="http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/story.jsp?story=592948%5B/url%5D">http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/story.jsp?story=592948</a>.</p>
<p>Bonfire of the Vanities had an ending, that, while not a storybook, happy ending, was realistic and dramatic. The fall from grace is complete.</p>
<p>i agree there, i just felt it was so abrupt</p>
<p>The book is an entertaining page-turner, and an interesting expos</p>
<p>There's an interesting interview with Tom Wolfe in today's YDN: <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28460%5B/url%5D">http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28460</a>.</p>
<p>I read the amazon.com excerpts and it seems like the books is about none other than sex. Is there an actual plot?</p>
<p>there is a bit of a plot... your basic small-town valedictorian bookworm (just realized i haven't seen that word in a looong time) goes to big school, gets overwhelmed by depravity that is modern college life...
i agree that it seems to come a lot more from duke than ivies. just due to the whole basketball thing.
but it was a good pageturner, kind of in the same way as the gossipgirls (gasp, i'm admitting i read them) are, but longer. i found the athletic culture of being dumb interesting, as i go to a school that accepts post-graduates (kids who are doing an additional senior year, usually for athletic reasons, such as getting the academics to go to an ivy that they have been recruited for), and the pgs often have this same culture of even-though-we're-smart-we're-never-gonna-show-it.
and its frustrating.</p>
<p>the book was pretty horrid and i don't understand why people like it.
throughout the novel i felt like strangling charlotte- how can a school valedictorian and one as smart and educated as charlotte not know or have heard about life outside of her native mountain home? the campus, the people, the situations, and the the lifestyles are all exaggerated so grossly that it made me put the book down for a few hours. it is impossible, to me, for a girl living in the united states, no matter how barren the region may appear to be, to not have access to MTV, hit radio stations, or at least Seventeen magazine. </p>
<p>the slang, clothing, and descriptions of people are blown out of proportion. you can almost tell that the book is written by an ederly man who obviously has no idea what modern college life is like. he does a horrid job of being a female narrator- but that is a given because what old male fogey would actually know what it's like to be a young, 21st century female? and no WONDER most people that do like it are college student PARENTS looking for some kind of "inside look" into modern college campuses. the book stereotypes teenagers and young adults- using the age-old "promiscuous jock"; "heartless booze-chugging frat boy"; or "antisocial comic book nerd." the drug usage, acohol consumption, and sexual escapades MUST have been prominent in the college scene 40 years ago when Wolfe was younger. the book, though, takes it and uses it to make it sound like every single student at Dupunt University is chugging, snorting, and groaning. Universities across the globe offer a more complex social network than your stereotypes and it is wrong for Wolfe to sit there and blow what may, in reality, be activities of 2% of students at a school do, and make it so that now 90% of the students are doing it. wolfe's fictional university could be host to "clueless: the college years!"</p>
<p>i don't recommend it at all if you are looking to read a book that offers serious insight into modern college life. and do NOT be fooled: young adults are NOT the crazy promiscuous people that he portrays in his book. my friends and i, my sisters and her friends, and the variety of college kids i have met on campuses across florida are testament to this!!! [INCLUDING U.F. where he supposedly "researched" the topics for this book!]</p>
<p>p.s.: i have never heard any young male use the word "beaver" for female genitalia in my life. just goes to show wolfe's blatant ignorance of real college student jargon.</p>
<p>^^you misunderstood the entire concept of the book. it is a satire. s-a-t-i-r-e. the characters are exaggerated because tom wolfe is making a parody of teen culture. congratulations - you read 688 pages without once getting the point. LOL.</p>
<p>Maybe its just bad satire? You don't have to insult Miami_Girl for not liking the book. In any case, I'm looking forward to reading it.</p>
<p>it IS a bad attempt.
his theme has been done too many times before.
the subject, in my opinion, is already history.
i certainly didn't care to hear another story about how "god awful" young adults are nowadays....especially when it is written poorly. </p>
<p>the satire then, doesn't do much for me.</p>