Allreaders.com
Author Tom Wolfe booklist (click here)

Book Review By Paula J. Bard
I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

   Charlotte Simmons, the genius, but oh so naive, graduate of a backwoods North Carolina high school, is awarded a full scholarship to prestigious Dupont University in Pennsylvania. With the assurance of her high school mentor, Miss Pennington, and the backing of her uneducated parents, Charlotte arrives on the Dupont campus starry-eyed. Her ambitions for a successful college career are boundless.
   But then she meets Beverly, her rich and worldly roommate from the Boston area, and college life becomes much different from Charlotte's high-minded expectations. She soon becomes involved in the life of cutting classes, going to frat parties, buying designer jeans, wearing suggestive clothing, and drinking to excess. All the while, she feels lonely for some real friends and continues to remind herself she is above the fray because she is so intelligent. When frat guy Hoyt Thorpe shows an interest in her, she allows him to "deflower" her in a most embarrassingly public way during a fraternity event. This is the lowest point in Charlotte's life in her mind's eye, and she struggles with the humiliation for days, going so far as to ignore what few friends she has and cutting classes and turning in hastily written assignments which cause her grades to plummet. It becomes a real challenge for Charlotte to remind herself that she is special--a gifted mind. She even finds herself unable to sympathize with Adam,the one friend who helped her avoid going into a deep depression because of her humiliation.
   As all this unfolds, Charlotte also becomes a sort of mentor to campus athletic star JoJo Johanssen, thus helping him escape the possibility of being removed from the basketball team because of his involvement in a cheating scandal.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 2000+ (Present Day)
Kids growing up/acting up? Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Age group of kid(s) in story: - college
Wild kid(s)? - druggie culture (& crime)
Loving/sexing? - guy chasing

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status:
Age: - a teen
Ethnicity/Nationality
Unusual characteristics:

Main Adversary
Identity: - society
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status:
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - below average

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 9 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast - Deep South
Misc setting

Writing Style
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - touching of anatomy - actual description of hetero sex - Boob talk! - Vagia talk! - Weiner talk!
Lot of foul language? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Back To Main Menu