Prep

Prep

by Curtis Sittenfeld

A beautiful day on the boat in Lake George reading the coming-of-age story of a young girl. Lee leaves home in Indiana to attend the highly competitive and expensive boarding high school named Ault, a fictional East coast, co-ed school.  The book, Prep, is written by Curtis Sittenfeld, who also attended a boarding school in the Northeast (and many believe that this is an auto-biography of her days in high school).  Lee comes from a lower middle class family who allowed her to attend after she was awarded a very generous scholarship.  The book is a reflection on her four years at Ault, mostly turbulent, but with a few high points.  Lee has a hard time fitting in with the ‘rich kids’ but does find a friend in Martha, the daughter of very wealthy parents. Lee goes into great detail regarding the relationships that she has with her peers, not all of them good ones.  Her inability to connect stems from her self-consciousness about her parents, who don’t have significant schooling, her lack of financial means, and not feeling as academically prepared as her peers.  From her first week in school, Lee is smitten with “Cross”, short for Crossman, a classmate who is also in the same grade.  They have one or two conversations during freshman year, but in senior year that all changes as Lee decides to enter a physically-charged, secretive relationship.  Although she faces many struggles, Lee is smarter than she thinks, receiving multiple college offers from top-tier schools (albeit not Ivy League, but top-rated nonetheless – sorry, not NYU).  The book highlights many of the issues that challenge high school students: self-esteem, bullying, suicidal ideations, eating issues, and ‘falling in love’.   The book shares a perspective on how race, class, and educational preparedness are issues that the elite boarding schools haven’t really addressed on their campuses and, I would echo, haven’t been addressed in our society as a whole.  The book may be best suited for a youthful teen.