Tom Wolfe thinks that it is idiotic that our culture sends our virginal daughters away to elite colleges that feature co-ed dorms and bathrooms and sexual mores only slightly more restrained than a hamster colony. IRL he sent his daughter to Duke and here he sends his titular heroine to Du(pont). This is a father's lament.

Nevertheless, Charlotte is a believable character for the most part. She is a non-elite raised by the American meritocracy into an institutional bastion of elitism. Like J.D. Vance at Yale Law, she is out of her depth at first, but largely finds her way towards success. That success is temporarily derailed by a frat boy boyfriend

However, Wolfe is not merely content to weigh (and find wanting) our cultural patterns towards courtship during the college years. Instead, he allows himself to cast Charlotte as an Athena--a true form of academic endeavor--and have her be confronted with three possible suitors. There is (1) the frat boy Hoyt who represents non-intellectual boyish thumos and cultural status, (2) the nerd Adam who desires more than anything to shape the broader culture either by becoming a professor or, better yet, a Public Intellectual, and (3) and finally the jock JoJo who is at Dupont merely to make it to the League. While Charlotte receives suit from each of the three in turn, none of them truly serve her true nature. Hoyt's unchecked sex drive deflowers her, while Adam, in turn, is too egg-headed to stir her to any passion at all. Charlotte does have a small positive impact on JoJo, convincing him to actually try to study, but in the end she is defined by her relationship to JoJo. Metaphorically, Wolfe is saying that the University has ultimately become something like the girlfriend of its Athletic Programs.

worst book ive ever read

I read this book years ago and saw it on my friend's bookshelf today. I had to add it to my bookshelf because I LOVED it. It's about a girl who grew up fairly poor in a small town and she goes off to college. It put right back in college. It was amazing! One of my favorite books ever. All of you have to read it!!!

"Tom Wolfe is one of my favorite authors and this book does not disappoint at all. Criticism usually regards the authors comprehension and use of language and expressions as well as descriptions of people out of his circles, but being a non-native English speaker I have come to the conclusion that I'm too far removed from these circles or unable to pick up nuances to the extent that it really does not matter at all to me - either that or the critique is just plain wrong. The other gripe is usually that Wolfe have a slight tendency of literary elephantiasis. At around two thirds of this book I kind agreed that some tough editing would have been in place - only to realize that the narrative describing Charlotte's descent into depression is so painfully and excruciatingly good that I just wished for it to end. "