Veo que hay opiniones de todo tipo con respecto a Charlotte Simmons. Yo lo único que tengo que recriminarle ala historia es el final en sí, porque esperaba otra cosa, aunque no me disgusta. Es un libro largo, sí, LO ES. Pero yo lo he disfrutado cada página. Creo que la traducción es buenísima, aunque imagino que en inglés será todavía mejor. He aprendido mucho leyendo el libro, tanto de la sociedad estudiantil americana, como de recursos literarios por la narrativa del autor. Sin duda, es uno de mis referentes desde ahora.

This was an interesting look into a fictional prestigious Ivy League College. The main character is a very naive brainy young woman from the Blue Ridge Mountains and her journey through the tenuous freshman year. Snarky, sad and at times frustrating at her total lack of savoir faire, I enjoyed and was very engaged in the story and characters. Tom Wolfe is a master storyteller.

I'd gone through some of the reviews here before I picked it up and I thought they were exaggerated. Nope. This really IS an old fella's attempt to explain you your college experience (assuming you went to college in the last decade).
I have 2 major problems with this book. First of them is the author. What is your deal, Tom Wolfe? I've never read any other book written by him (don't think I will) so I can't say if it's his usual style but is he a control freak? Is he bizzarely proud of his research? Or, which might be the most probable answer, does he think his readers are f*cking morons? Or maybe he thought only other 70+ year olds will be the ones reading this novel? Why else would he explain everything? People, we get a definition of humping. We learn that Nietzsche was "a German philosopher". He tells us 3.99 USD is not a price of a year's subscription of Cosmo, it's what you pay for one issue (which is supposed to be a shocker, apparently)! Is he for real?!
Also, the main character. Charlotte Simmons, the sweet virgin. Are we supposed to like her? To root for her? To symphatize with her? Because she's the most annoying, self-righteous uptight b*tch. Plus, I'm not from NC but I'll take a wild guess and assume North Carolina circa 2004 generally had TV and internet, right? So am I really supposed to believe a smart girl who went to a normal public high school would be so utterly shocked by a bit of cursing? By a boy in a corridor wearing (the horror!) a t-shirt and boxer shorts? By people (gasp!) having sex (not in front of her, just in the same building)? Had she never watched the O.C., or anything on MTV? Believe me, I get that wild partying and casual sex are not for everyone, I do. I just don't think her reactions to so.many.things. are the reactions of a young girl (even a small town one, who's introvertic, unexperienced etc.). Really, such people simply don't exist.

Also, Wolfe seems to master the subject yet fails to build a realistic world based on his research. Yes, he knows the lingo (yet he uses it same way a nerdy kid who tries to be cool would). But at the same time he seems not to understand how rapidly some fashions and quirks change - around 2004 no girl would take "You look like Britney Spears" as a compliment anymore, yet this very line is used repeatedly and very succesfully by one of the male characters. Tiny detail? Yes, but social realities of such books are based on them (and there are many other examples).

My advice: if you want a story about college kids doing auto-destructive things, read Easton Ellis. He did it much better. 20 years earlier. And while he was still actually young.


Edit: I've actually finished it (I hate to quit books, even if they suck) - my opinion hasn't changed. One more general thought though - some people defend this book saying the author asks us to question the norms. I think they're giving this novel wayyyy too much credit. As one reviewer on this very website said, Wolfe must have got the norms wrong.

Lot of people hating on this book. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It was entertaining, made me laugh. It's fiction, not a treatise. 700+ pages flew by. Stereotypes are funny for a reason. It's because they are, somewhere deep down, based on a truth. The truth sucks, but you can't get sand in your crotch just because he suggests D-1 athletes are meatheads or sorority girls like to get drunk and tear each other down.

this is the worst book i have ever read in my entire life and i am not exaggerating when i say that. the only reason i finished this book is because i needed to write an integrative analysis on it for one of my courses. truly reads like some old dude shaking his fist at "kids these days" in a completely unhinged and out of touch way. complete with rampant sexism and racism, this is 675 pages of pure bullshit. stay away.

3.5 stars rounded up. Tom Wolfe is always a fun read, and I enjoyed reading this (very long) book, but I never felt a strong connection to any of the characters, including the protagonist, Charlotte. In this book, Wolfe's characters are largely self-absorbed college students at a fictional elite university. I didn't see myself, even in my college days, in any of them. I think we're supposed to have sympathy for Charlotte, who comes to this elite university as an academic prodigy from a small country town in the Blue Ridge mountains, but she turns out to be as self-absorbed as the fellow students she thinks she transcends.

Io sono Charlotte Simmons...e sono una figa di legno

Nelle prime duecento pagine per quanto il libro sia scritto bene e dia un impatto realistico dei giovani studenti del college, Charlotte Simmons è davvero come da titolo. Credo che il mio problema principale con questo libro sia che la Charlotte Simmons della cena di gala mi piace di più di quella originale, che veniva dalle montagne.

Il resto sui giovani, l'alcool, "il pathois del cazzo fottuto", i ricchi, le confraternite e il sesso mi sembra più che altro la ridicolizzazione di chi muore di invidia e allora ti fa la morale. Alla fine, aveva ragione Laurie. Il college è l'unico momento nella vita in cui puoi davvero sperimentare tutto, compresa la libertà.

Frickin' fabulous, can't put down, addictive read!

This book kept me turning the pages but ultimately was pretty lame. Also, Tom Wolfe is a perv
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Only read a few chapters in this book. Too much profanity. These old ears couldn't take every 5th being the "f" word.

Certainly not one of Wolfe's best. The book really began well for me and drew me into the Charlotte Simmons story of a young girl from the mountains of North Carolina going to this highly rated liberal arts university in Pennsylvania. A fish out of water type story, and once there this book bogged down for me. Maybe I am too familiar with colleges and all that goes on there, but the book just did not move me and we always just sitting there and I had a hard time returning again and again to the book. As with all of Wolfe's novels they are extremely well written which, for me, is the only reason I gave it a 3***. Again, not his best and maybe not as bad as the reviewers have said for years, but certainly not what you expect from Wolfe.

Another great read from Wolfe, one of my favorites. Bought this for $1 at a book sale last week. Wolfe tells the story of a bunch of college students at a prestigious University.