I bought it in December and read it over Christmas. It was a long read but I enjoyed and I've been dying to find people who had also read.
I thought it was a pretty good synopsis of what college life is like these days. There were definitely moments that I could relate to what was going on in the book and it was like reliving parts of my college experience.
People who are smart dont get the credit they deserve unless they do something socially acceptable(ie date the star basketball player). I pretty much took that to be one of the main focuses of the book and which is probably why Charlotte only gets attention from the faculty when shes getting all these great grades and writing awesome papers. In college its only when you do something really kickass or bad that you stand out from the crowd (ie the formal incident and dating Jojo). I couldnt stand Adam or the Milliennial Mutants, AXiD670 the name made me cringe too!
I didnt think it slammed the greek system that bad, it was harldy the focus of the book. But like it or not we have some of those sterotypical people in GLOs and for Tom Wolfe as an outsider and a writer hes clearly going to notice that and mention it in his book to make for a good read.
KR- WHen I was reading it my comparision of Dupont was to Duke as well. Granted Duke is a great school but you're right in that I dont think if it was as elite as TW painted it that the althetes would be getting that much attention. Not that I'm a big college basketball fan but I dont think many Ivy league schools make it to March Madness like they do in Dupont. I had an issue with how he was trying to portray the school...it was like he was trying to mix a medley of different schools into one and characteristics of the school kept contradicting themselves.
All in all a good read. I didnt like how there were so many characters and some just got axed halfway through never to be heard from again. I didnt like how the book ended and it wasnt until I sat and thought about it that I figured how TW's message...definitely an ending you think about...no spoon feeding here!
I'm definitely up for more discussion if anyone else is!
