admin
22 December 2023
I Am Charlotte Simmons, the latest novel by Tom Wolfe, is the first I have read by this well-known and respected author. It may well be my last.
I really wanted to like this book, but I felt like I was swimming upstream against a current of words. I was exhausted by the redundancies and overly inflated descriptions. I decided that I would give this tome (676 pages, thank you very much) until page 200 before giving up on it completely, but around page 175, I was interested enough that I decided I would finish it.
The story is about an exceptionally intelligent young girl from a small South Carolina town, who is guided by a favorite teacher along the path to a full scholarship to the prestigious Dupont University. When Charlotte arrives, she is thrilled, yet feels like a fish out of water. She tries hard to fit in, even going so far as to try to lose her Southern accent. She is shocked that her rich roommate and fellow students are only interested in sex and partying. Basketball is God at Dupont, and chapters are spent describing the various athletes and their abilities. Countless pages are spent describing the \"prevailing college creole: fuck patois\". Mr. Wolfe, in many cases, seems like he is just copying definitions out of a dictionary.
I found it difficult to imagine that Charlotte or any of the main characters would actually be thinking the thoughts that he portrayed. Bottom line: Charlotte was a young innocent who learned to find her way in the world of Dupont University. The lessons were not always easy, but she persevered. Her metamorphosis from that young girl into a worldlier woman, in the end, seemed a cop out, because it was finally achieved when she became the girlfriend of the star basketball player.
I truly believe that this book could have been written in half as many pages and would have been twice as interesting. I had to develop my own method of speed-reading just to get past the ocean of words to get to the meat of the story. I Am Charlotte Simmons left me feeling not that I had learned any life lessons, nor feeling much (if any) affection for Charlotte or the other characters, but merely weary.
I really wanted to like this book, but I felt like I was swimming upstream against a current of words. I was exhausted by the redundancies and overly inflated descriptions. I decided that I would give this tome (676 pages, thank you very much) until page 200 before giving up on it completely, but around page 175, I was interested enough that I decided I would finish it.
The story is about an exceptionally intelligent young girl from a small South Carolina town, who is guided by a favorite teacher along the path to a full scholarship to the prestigious Dupont University. When Charlotte arrives, she is thrilled, yet feels like a fish out of water. She tries hard to fit in, even going so far as to try to lose her Southern accent. She is shocked that her rich roommate and fellow students are only interested in sex and partying. Basketball is God at Dupont, and chapters are spent describing the various athletes and their abilities. Countless pages are spent describing the \"prevailing college creole: fuck patois\". Mr. Wolfe, in many cases, seems like he is just copying definitions out of a dictionary.
I found it difficult to imagine that Charlotte or any of the main characters would actually be thinking the thoughts that he portrayed. Bottom line: Charlotte was a young innocent who learned to find her way in the world of Dupont University. The lessons were not always easy, but she persevered. Her metamorphosis from that young girl into a worldlier woman, in the end, seemed a cop out, because it was finally achieved when she became the girlfriend of the star basketball player.
I truly believe that this book could have been written in half as many pages and would have been twice as interesting. I had to develop my own method of speed-reading just to get past the ocean of words to get to the meat of the story. I Am Charlotte Simmons left me feeling not that I had learned any life lessons, nor feeling much (if any) affection for Charlotte or the other characters, but merely weary.
artid
2940
Old Image
7_5_wolfebook.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 05 (jan 2005)
section
entertainmental