Product Description

Curtis Sittenfeld's sparkling debut is set in an American boarding school, a hotbed of privilege, ambition and neurosis, every bit as snobbish and competitive as anything dreamed up on this side of the Atlantic. Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts; she leaves behind her affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, her head filled with images from the school's glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls hold lacrosse sticks on pristine athletics fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.

As Lee soon learns, Ault is quite unlike anything she has previously experienced, a self-enclosed world populated by jaded teenagers whose expectations, values and social rituals are utterly unfamiliar to her. At first an observer of, then a participant in the hyper-vigilant, intricately demarcated life of the school, Lee eventually finds her own place in the pecking order - until a single act of spontaneous folly shatters her carefully honed identity.

'Smart, witty and sensitive . . . Any girl who's ever felt like an outsider will be drawn to troubled Lee, a scholarship teen at a posh boarding school’ InStyle

'An addictive portrait of adolescence - The OC meets Donna Tartt’s The Secret History with flashes of Clueless’ Observer

‘Sittenfeld writes with confidence, her dialogue rings true . . . and her observations range from witty to surprisingly funny, sometimes absurd’ Herald

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13200 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

Daily Express
‘Sittenfeld’s humour and sharp observation deliver a coming-of-age
novel you can relate to.’

Sunday Times
'it is her skittish everygirl act that lends the book its
infectious charm.'

Guardian
'a tour de force of bitter adolescence, class envy, ...solid
friendship and shivery first sex'

Customer Reviews

Nostalgic....
Although set in an American boarding school, Prep captures the insular nature of any school environment with precision and a truthfulness which leaves you aching.

Lee Fiora a scholarship student at Ault, a prestigious East Coast boarding school, feels like an outsider from the beginning of her time there. The book shows you her development throughout her four years and shows her grappling with everyday problems. However, the book is not mundane in any respect, it conveys her insecurities, her need to always remain distant and somewhat detached. The questions she raises are perhaps those which any teenager might ask, what is her place in her insular society, where does she fit in and how?

What makes this book particularly interesting is the fact that Lee is narrating the incidents sometime after she has left Ault, thus she is able to relay these episodes with hindsight, and she is able to see more clearly the intensity and importance placed on them, an intensity which may seem unecessary when you step out of the school environment and see it in relation to the world at large. But it is also the intensity of these incidents which ring true, the fact that in such a small, close-knit school society, and perhaps because of the age of the students these incidents become life or death...

If you can get past the ridiculous names; Cross, Darden, Horton, Gates are but a few, then you will find a brilliantly written book that might leave you nostalgic for the innocence, naievity and purity of emotion which come from being a teenager.

Youth Isn't Wasted By The Young, It's Endured
"I was terrified of unwittingly leaving behind a piece of scrap paper on which were written all my private desires and humiliations. The fact that no such scrap of paper existed ... never decreased my fear."

Lee Fiora has written a coming of age novel unlike no other. On the one hand she is insecure and unsure of most everything, and on the other hand she shows a maturity of thought on what she really wants to be:

"The interest I felt in certain guys then confused me, because it wasn't romantic, but I wasn't sure what else it might be. But now I know: I wanted to take up people's time making jokes, to tease the dean in front of the entire school, to call him by a nickname. What I wanted was to be a cocky high-school boy, so damned sure of my place in the world."

Curtis Sittenfeld, the author, grew up in Cincinnati, and went to Groton and then on to Vassar and Stanford. Lee Fiora grew up in South Bend, and then on to Ault Prep School and the U of Michigan. Curtis Sottenfeld would have us believe that this is not an autobiography, but many people who went to Groton can identify with much of the book. I would suggest that many people who were ever adolescents can identify with much of the book. This is a true coming of age novel, and one that reflects accurately the angst of the teenager. Most of us can sympathize with Lee Fiora, we have been there, we have suffered the same problems and issues, and Curtis Sittenfeld has depicted these events as startlingly and evenly as we remember them.

"Prep" is not an "us against "you" novel as suggested elsewhere. It is more of a compelling read about our lives and times. The "haves and have nots" are certainly registered. Cross, Aspeth, DeDe are all names that gleam money and power. "The Bankers Boys" are a reflection of the rich young men whose fathers are found on Wall Street. "Prep" also brings in the stereotypical race and sexual issues, but they are told with insight and familiar settings. We understand what these people are going through, and we can identify with the feelings and behaviors.

Lee Fiora is a young girl of the late 80's and early 90's. Just before the dawn of email and computer land. The students talk to each other and on the phone and communication with their parents is as I remember. The love/hate relationship with the family we have left behind and the values taught by our parents.

A memorable read. Many of us can identify with the behavior and feelings of Lee Fiora. In trying to find your place in the world, we all are wrestling with our inner beings. Well done Curtis Sittenfeld. My adolescence remembered, one of the best times of my life and one of my worst. Highly recommended. prisrob 01-01-06

Story of an Outsider
Upon picking up the novel PREP, it wasn't easy to put it down while reading it or to forget it afterwards. Prep told the story of Lee Fiora, a painfully shy girl at a prestigious boarding school on a scholarship. The book takes the reader through all four years of high school, omitting the summers when Lee returns home. While the overall plot wasn't what kept the book moving along, it was the brilliant characterization that the author placed in Lee. Highlights of the book are Freshman Spring and Junior Winter. In Freshmen Spring Lee begins to make friends, and a sense of relief and happiness comes over her; from there on she knows she won't be completely alone. In Junior Winter she goes back on a forgotten friendship and starts to date a "townie." Throughout the book, Lee is in love with the most popular, best-looking boy in her class, and their affair is described later, in her senior year. You begin to love and hate some of the characters...the ones Lee treats well and the ones she treats badly. Basically, PREP is the story of an outsider, an isolated girl who just wants people to understand and love her. I would recommend this book to many, as PREP is a different take on the fantasy idea of boarding schools. So pick up a copy! I guarantee you'll be enthralled. Another book I need to recommend (very much on my mind since I purchased a used copy off Amazon) is THE LOSERS' CLUB: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez, a somewhat obscure, highly entertaining novel similar in age-range to this book -- and one I can't stop thinking about. So, without question, my last two Amazon recommendations would be: PREP: A NOVEL by Curtis Sittenfeld and THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez.