I Am Charlotte Simmons

Hoewel de personages wat cliché zijn uitgewerkt (het brave plattelandsmeisje, het rijkeluiszoontje, de nerd, ... ) is dit toch een goed geschreven boek over het leven aan een Amerikaanse universiteit. Wel niet zo goed als ‘Het vreugdevuur der ijdelheden’ van dezelfde auteur.

Can you know that a book is existentially ridiculous and still love it? I’m not quite talking about in the “a movie so bad it’s good” sense. I don’t read I am Charlotte Simmons in the spirit of mockery, and I don’t think it’s totally inept, except in one particular way - it is exactly a book about young college students written by a man in his 70s. Everything about the characterization of Charlotte and the people around her seems anachronistic and tonally wrong. The slang is terrible, the expression of social mores is funny, the very picture of youth is all wrong. And yet there’s something so loving in this portrait, and so endearing in its quaint values and stabs at relevance, that I enjoyed every page. Wolfe's story is engaging, and while Charlotte is 100% a symbol of things he doesn't understand, she's also an inherently compelling protagonist. So funny that the synopsis of this book highlight's Wolfe's satirical wit, as there's nothing resembling effective satire here. Instead, there's a sweet sharp story that exists despite itself and a character out of time that fails in depiction but sings from a place of pure sentiment.

Can you imagine people chanting "Go go, JoJo" at a player named JoJo at a basketball court? I sure can't! It's rhythmically terrible. But it's exactly what I like about this daft book.

So, I spent Thanksgiving laid up with a nasty cold and nothing to do but read and sleep. I decided to give Charlotte Simmons a go as a break from my recent spate of non-fiction.

With every passing minute, I find myself disliking this book more and more. In fact, I'm starting to hate it! I can't tell if my ire is directed at Wolfe's ability to cram a 20 page short story into 700, the book's hasty and entirely unsatisfying ending, the shallow/unbelievable characters who elicit no sympathy/empathy/cheering for their victory or defeat, the relentless repetition of certain phrases (i.e., downlighters, ruturtrut and pelvic saddle), his less-than-clever rap lyrics (M.C. Wolfe also failed miserably as a rap lyricist in 'A Man In Full'...give it up, old man!), the constant need to describe the same things over and over (we knew JoJo was 6-10 about 400 pages ago, Tom), the flat, pseudo-clever wordplay, e.g. the Bitsosushi car. It's funny cuz it's Japanese! Hyuk hyuk...

I think people think they're getting some really biting satire when Tom Wolfe decides to tackle another decade's zeitgeist. 'Charlotte' isn't satire. It's not even remotely funny and its characters are uninteresting stereotypes completely familiar to anyone who's seen a John Hughes film. Instead, it's a rather creepy look at how an elderly man looks at issues like the sexuality of people 50 years his junior. Seriously, the 50 page lead up to Charlotte's rape/deflowering at the frat formal was gratuitous and rather unsettling - especially so when picturing Wolfe (who dedicated this book to his college-aged daughters, no less!) sitting in his Manhattan apartment in his white suit, late at night, writing about an 18 year old girl losing her virginity...from her point of view. If I wasn't so sick, I'd have taken a long shower after that passage.

'Charlotte Simmons' doesn't even fall into the category of social commentary. Wolfe attacks obvious targets with no new insight. Far out! The jock has a brain! The well-intentioned geek has a devious side.

It must be said that I did not go to a big college with big time athletics. But I know this much, if ANYONE came up with a chant as dumb as "Go go, Jojo!" at one of our basketball games, they would have certainly been dealt with harshly and expeditiously.

Maybe for the '10s, an 80 year old Wolfe can take on the scandalous world of Montessori schools!

This book sucked!

Critics want to pretend this novel can be dismissed with the "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" meme. Some of the play with a collegiate patois are ridiculous, but Wolfe has always been a bit ridiculous with language. It is misguided to leverage this as a convenient way to ignore what's revealed by Wolfe's satirical attention.

This novel cuts right to the fundamental problems of campus life after the 1960s. In the classroom, standards and rigor are in decline. In co-educational life, men and women are not forming productive, long-term relationships at the same rate because social etiquette and norms of sexual propriety have been tossed aside without viable replacements. And generally, the collegiate environment is failing to forge adults and discerning citizens. The system indulges them and traps them in their adolescent folly.

In many ways, Wolfe was ahead of the curve with his focus on the dysfunctional environments of post-secondary educational institutions, especially elite ones.

She was naked, she had seen her little brother's thing and her father's once when he got out of the shower, but this big thing, a ball-peen hammer... He thrust ball-peen hammer right into her and it went nowhere, he thrust again with a grunt this time, got nowhere, a wave of pain rose, another thrust nowhere, ahhhh, "it hurt!" he didn't stop for an instant... he thrust and broke through she let out a yelp of pain more than pain surprise and more than pain and surprise insult this thing was stuck in her innards in out in out "ouch"...

Dupont University: the Olympian halls of learning housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition....Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a sheltered freshman from North Carolina, who has come here on full scholarship. But Charlotte soon learns, to her mounting dismay, that for the upper-crust coeds of Dupont, sex, Cool, and kegs trump academic achievement every time.

Well ... I had never read any Tom Wolfe before. I had read and heard several things about this book - namely, how Wolfe researched by exploring college culture, attending parties and interviewing students and such. The resulting fiction is a paltry attempt at immersion journalism at best. I know, I know, Wolfe wasn't trying to tell a true story (and naturally, no one compares to my journalistic hero Leon Dash) but instead write a fictional piece exploring the seamier side of collegiate life at an upper-crust University. At least, I think that's what he was trying to do. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the book. In fact, it was very readable and pretty entertaining. I think it just fell far short of what Mr. Wolfe feels (or hopes) he accomplished.

You can just tell by reading the book that it was written by someone who ALMOST but doesn't quite, get it. It has that outsider's perspective, but not in the loner, misunderstood sense. I'm not sure exactly how to put this but I hope this makes it clear what I am trying to say. It feels like the book was written by someone who has no idea what they are talking about, yet feels they have completely mastered the topic. Wolfe overuses tools like slang, pop culture references, etc. to try and make it seem like he really knows what he's talking about. It's like that nerdy kid who desperately tries to seem cool by doing things like liking really obscure music, or quoting the Simpson's ad nauseum, or constantly talking about their drinking habits and crazy drunken adventures. You knew that kid in college. We all did.

Anyhow, the protagonist, the titular Charlotte Simmons, is an outsider, so Wolfe's strategy does work to an extent. But she is a strangely implausible character at times, as are some of the others. And not implausible in the way that all people are, more like implausible as in some of the characters do things that are directly contradictory to their intial presentation (I am thinking of Laurie, Charlotte's best friend, in particular). Charlotte leads a life of near-constant mortification. Her embarassment, at least as written, is so intense at all times that it must be simply exhausting. It left me wondering how, in this perpetually self-conscious state, she managed to both be a genius, and have an extremely high level of confidence in both her intellect and physical appearance. This self-confidence seemed at complete odds with her extreme, even desperate desire to fit in. It was strange also, that she felt superior to everyone yet wanted to be their leader. I suppose this is not unusual, in fact it's almost cliched. But it's still strange, to me at least. The characters are poorly developed. There are actually too many characters in my opinion. They all revolve around each other and interact, but some in only the most fleeting of ways. And (THIS MIGHT RUIN IT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT) some who are introduced as being very influential in Charlotte's life are referenced only briefly again, and conflicts are never resolved.

In short, the characters, even Charlotte, are shallow. We are given the gist of what it is that Charlotte desires, and even a glimpse into her inner turmoil, but it is still unclear to me WHY she wants the things she wants, and why she seems to have two personalities - one which wants to be intellectual, one which wants to be "cool". She grows angry whenever she is recognized as one or the other, though - when around cool people she wants them to know how smart she is and vice-versa. She doesn't seem to find a way to let these two aspects of herself co-exist. Which I suppose is very typical of a college freshman. However, the resolution of the book was unsatisfying. Basically what I came away with - Smart people do stupid things, too. Duh.

Overall, it was intriguing and kept me entertained on the plane

Tom Wolfe hat mit "Ich bin Charlotte Simmons" einen großen amerikanischen Universitäts-Roman geschrieben. 1988 war mein Lieblingsbuch "Fegefeuer der Eitelkeiten" von Tom Wolfe. 2012 habe ich "Back To Blood" mit ähnlicher Begeisterung gelesen. Aber den Roman "Ich bin Charlotte Simmons" von 2005 habe ich damals aufgrund einer Kritik (ich glaube im Spiegel) ausgelassen. Knapp 20 Jahre später wollte ich mir doch noch ein eigenes Bild machen. Zum Glück.

In diesem Ziegelstein von einem Taschenbuch mit knapp tausend Seiten geht es um Charlotte. Sie kommt aus einem kleinen ländlichen Ort. Sie ist die erste aus dem Ort, die es auf die renommierte Dupont Universität geschafft hat. Mit ihrer konservativen, zurückhaltenden Art landet sie in Sodom und Gomorrha. Sie wird im ersten Semester vor allem drei Bekanntschaften machen: Jojo ist ein etwas dümmlicher, weißer Basketballspieler im Uni-Team. Adam ist ein verpeilter Student, der zwischen Reporter und Intellektueller changiert. Hoyt ist das unsympathische Großmaul einer Uni-Verbindung. Letzterer wird Charlotte in eine Depression stürzen. Die Fahrt nach Hause und die Depression Charlottes ist einer der dunkelsten Abschnitte des Buches. Hier gibt es keinerlei ironische Brechung. Generell ist das Buch mit Ausnahme dieses Abschnittes aber in einem satirischen, leichten Ton geschrieben.

Trotz Längen in der Handlung, die bei dem Umfang nicht so überraschend sind, habe ich mich zu keinem Zeitpunkt gelangweilt. Das liegt daran, dass Tom Wolfe so gut schreiben kann. Egal ob er ein Basketball-Spiel, ein Seminar oder eine Studenten-Party beschreibt, egal ob er Klassenunterschiede, Neid, politische Intrigen thematisiert, er langweilt nie. Es geht aber über reine Unterhaltung hinaus. Der Mikrokosmos der amerikanischen Uni-Gesellschaft wird schmerzhaft genau ausgeleuchtet. Ein Meisterwerk.

3.5 Stars
I almost don't know where to begin with this review. I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head, which is definitely the sign of a good book, but this is also a bit of a bizarre book.

Wolfe brought all of his investigative reporting background to writing this novel, by stepping onto multiple college campuses in his 70's to observe and talk with students there. I was a college student at a large public university from 2002-2006, and this book was published in 2004. Wolfe definitely nailed a lot of the college vibe, lingo, dress, and personalities present on campus. However, it creates this interesting dynamic in the novel, because he often has to stop and explain the "patois" of the lingo to the reader, which makes it feel like his audience is other older adults who are not or did not live this experience. So it feels a bit strange, what drew this 70+ year old man to this subject matter.

In some ways I could relate to Charlotte Simmons, she came from a more sheltered and conservative background and gets dropped into a college where there is so much freedom it borders on feeling hedonistic, and not always knowing how to navigate that divide between her old world and her new one. However, I felt like his characterization of Charlotte as being a lone reed, so to speak, amongst her peers in this regard feels off. In a large university, there are so many different, with so many different backgrounds and interests. I never had trouble to find many friends who I could relate to.

His depictions of "Sexiling", the herds of freshman girls traveling about campus everywhere, the going out/nightlife culture felt so accurate.

Ultimately, while there was redemption and growth and change in some of the characters, this novel also felt really dark, and a bit gloomy and depressing. I do think it was hyperbolic to emphasize the culture of the 21st century college experience. However, I guess I don't get the point of this book, or who the intended audience is. Because the reality is, given the advances in technology and the changes in our world because of COVID, college experiences, probably look even more different still than this now 17 year old book.

Ultimately, the book made me reminisce about my college days and wax nostalgic for some of my favorite people and places.