I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe
I just finished I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe. And I have many, many thoughts about this book. I've never read anything else by him, and although I remember when this book came out, I never had any intention of reading it. I told one of my coworkers he should read The Plot Against America, and he said I should read IACS, so we traded. The majority of critics (based on Metacritic) seem to say that this is Wolfe's worst, or most disappointing, book. If his worst book can make me think this much, then let's see what his best books can do.
I didn't enjoy reading this book. Basically, nothing good happens in it. Charlotte Simmons, a genius prodigy from the middle of nowhere, North Carolina, gets a scholarship to a top Ivy League university. She's an innocent and discovers that college life is basically Sodom and Gomorrah. She gets sucked into some of it.
I didn't think there was a single likable character in the book. Pretty much everyone is a caricature: innocent naif, frat boy, jock, snobby girl from private school, slutty sorority girl, baby boomer clinging to out-of-touch rebellion... etc.
HOWEVER, having said all that, Tom Wolfe -- who's what, 70? -- nailed a lot of the details and the dialogue. Unfortunately, he doesn't nail it 100% of the time, and when he doesn't, it's jarring. There were also times when I felt the book was definitely not being written for people under 40. Like when he explains that "hot" and "cool" mean the same thing, as if that's something the reader might be unaware of.
On one hand, there were many times in the book when I thought, "Yeah, that's what university is like." It's like facing the worst and admitting that it exists. On the other hand, I thought his presentation of things was way too bleak. All Charlotte wants when she starts school is some friends who aren't total assholes, and who are interested in learning. She doesn't find any. She finds some other geniuses, but they're all interested primarily in power.
If you took this book at face value, you'd be forced to conclude that only lust, greed, ambition, and envy exist on college campuses. I don't know if Wolfe was intentionally playing with caricatures or what.
For me, it's interesting to compare how I felt about IACS, and how I felt about Fall on Your Knees by Anne-Marie Macdonald, although the subject matter is totally different. In both cases, I stayed up really late finishing the books. I was engrossed in them. Both have important characters who are flawed -- Charlotte in IACS (who I didn't like much, although I felt sorry for her), and Francis and Kathleen in FOYK (both of whom I liked by the end). In both, terrible things happen. But in FOYK, the emotions are more realistic, and the characters more three-dimensional. Despite all the depressing and disturbing things that happen in FOYK, I loved the book. In IACS, there's no respite from the shittiness of life.
See how much I had to say about this book? I've been thinking about it a lot. I'd say that's one sign of a good book.