Helpful Score: 3
I loved this book! It had such a finger on the pulse of modern university life. I felt like I was back in college! Fantastic characters, great use of "hip" language...I never would have guessed this book was written by a middle-aged man...he nailed the female college experience.
Helpful Score: 2
I didn't care for this book. Having been a fairly naive girl in college not too long ago, I didn't think Charlotte Simmons (or any of the other college characters) "sounded" right. Also, it was written with an apparently condescending tone, which I didn't like.
Helpful Score: 2
Thinly disguised rant against a certain university located in the South with a well-renowned basketball team. The writing is fun and the characters are so outrageous, but after awhile the humor wears thin.
Helpful Score: 1
I finished this book because I made myself. It just seemed to go on and on, and I think this book could have been half as long. It seemed to never really get to the point, I would not recommend.
Helpful Score: 1
Just finished reading this. A long (738 page), satisfying read that makes you cringe about the college life and hope that much of it is truly fictional. Wolfe develops his characters and creates a web that eventually intertwines.
One of my favorite books of all time. Well written, plan on ignoring everything in your life until it's finished.
Fun romp from the master of American social commentary. Not his best work, but it's an enjoyable read.
Interesting book about life at a big university and how a freshman girl from a small town in NC deals with it. Ironic that I've read this while the scandals at Duke University are hitting the papers. Is this too close for comfort??
Really funny satire on University life, will have you laughing out loud...I highly recommend this book, although not one of his best it is truly funny
I'm listing this as a "book read" only so I don't purchase again. Tried to like this one but 150 pages in of this 700+ page book I gave up. I didn't like any of the characters. They were all so exaggerated and I just didn't want to keep reading 700 pages about college stupidity and overinflated egos and high strung anxieties. Kept trying just another chapter, just another chapter, but finally I gave up.
I was very impressed with Wolfe's ability to get inside an 18-year-old girl's head and portray her college experience accurately. The main character definitely reminds me of someone I know.
As with much Wolfe, this is essentially a burlesque paean to masculinity, only here juxtaposed with the uncomfortably complex social and emotional undercurrents of the PC movement. It is also classic Wolfe in its roaring, operatic conclusion and denouement, tying together too many wild threads a little too neatly. The deus ex machina that saves the day for all, even Charlotte, is-- who would have thought-- a work of fiction-styled journalism! Hyper-celebrated college athletes are roasted but not really questioned; post-feminist collegiate sexual politics are explored in sultifying detail but not really lamented (other than being shown as grotesque and vulgar). It takes a crack at the American class system but in the end accepts it with effete resignation. A worthwhile read, worth it alone for seeing a septuagenarian's romp with potty slang.
Tom Wolfe is one of my favorite authors. I have read and reread his books, always with an interest for the human reaction to life experiences. You actually feel what the characters are feeling, know their ups and downs, share their relief and sorrows.
This was an excellent, enthralling book. It brought me back to my college days, although much of the book was more extreme than anything I experienced. The book brings you inside the heads of various college students including Charlotte Simmons, who is a genius mountain girl who has lead a sheltered life up until now. The others are a basketball star, a frat boy, and a nerd.
This is a long book, but was a pretty goood story about a "country girl" dealing with life on a college campus.
Loved this book. Dead on in descriptions of southern girl facing ivy league school. A bit prudish in the author's point of view, but captures so many college nuances so well that able to ignore fussy author.
Tom Wolfe is avery incisive,scathing at times, and always uses words that aren't even in my Random House Dictionary - I think just to be pretentious. He's a brilliant writer and this is a fascinating study of the social class composition of Colleges. Brought back some awful memories from my own college days.
i was a litte intimidated at first by the size of this book. however it proved to be a fast, enjoyable read. Your heart will go out to Charlotte, a girl who doesn't really belong but finally finds her place.
A pretty fun & amusing read, but I didn't think there was much to it. Wolfe really knows his youth of today, though. It kept me entertained, but I felt like it lacked any real direction, for the most part. Still, I'm glad I read it (I know it doesn't sound like it).
A fun read. It made me think back to my own innocent venture into college life. The ending was a little too "neat" for my own tastes, but still a fun/frightening glance into college life. I'm glad my kids are still too young to be thinking about it all!
A bit verbose, and in some places a bit absurd, but overall a good read.
Lots of fun!! Reminds me of everything I disliked about my college years...
I enjoyed this book.. I kept forgetting that a man was the author. Tom Wolfe can write a book you want to finish
Wolfe is an amazing writing but I thought this was an overly-critical look a generation next. Some lovely images though and some amusing and heartfelt moments.
If you like Tom Wolfe, you will like this. Great romp back to college life and its various calamaties.
