While people love to note that it's creepy that Wolfe was an 80+ year old man writing about 18 to 22 year old kids when this book was released, I think he did a brilliant job of depicting college life in the early 2000s--though reading it now it feels decidedly like historical fiction because so much has changed with political correctness and technology. I've always been a sucker for huge sprawling 500+ page novels...The Fortress of Solitude, Middlemarch, Middlesex. I think the length allows the author to really delve into the psyche of the characters; Charlotte's disappointment that an Ivy League school has students that are no less shallow than the kids she left behind in Appalachia, or the spoiled Hoyt who rules the fraternities and treats women like garbage, without really considering his future. I couldn't put it down.

I will read almost any novel devoted to school life within first-world countries (slightly disappointed in myself over this disclosure, but a fact's a fact.) I was glad to get this very thick book at a reasonable price. And then I started reading Wolfe's protagonist. I related to her at times; wanted to smack her at other times. I was disappointed to see young women disregarded and discounted and even sometimes abused on almost every page.

At the book's sudden end, I definitely felt cheated. I had to re-read the last 20 pages and make certain whether each character got what he or she deserved or got forgotten about entirely. (Note: most of the females get forgotten about, because apparently they are worth no one's time.)

I have a feeling that this book will not age well. The story was possibly obsolete at the moment of publication. Although maybe with some amusement a group of high school grads should be assigned to read it and see what really happens. It's like the Worst-Case-Scenario handbook for big universities. Even though I never attended a big university for any extended period, I cannot believe they are like that. Also, I cannot believe that the same small group of characters encountered each other so regularly and solely contributed it to coincidence. Small town girl meets newspaper editor meets frat president meets basketball star. I think not.

This is the standard Tom Wolfe novel where characters face turbulence and inevitably suffer downfall. There is much social satire and the subject area concerns students at an American University (a fictitious one).

The character type under scrutiny and under the gun is the young American male who is portrayed as sexually callous, anti-intellectual and consumed by an insatiable appetite for sports – whether it is a video games or in an arena. The main character is Charlotte, an innocent virginal girl who has a brilliant mind, but somehow seems unconvincingly asexual for an 18 year old adolescent. But her portrayal as a rape victim from the handsome but utterly parasitical Hoyt is convincing and is the pathos of this story. She is infatuated by his charming deviousness and while a part of her feels sincerity from him another suspects ulterior and lascivious motives. Even after she is raped she still has ambivalent feelings towards him. At the end of the story she has succumbed to ‘popularity’ and is going out with a dim-witted basketball player. This was less convincing (or maybe its’ just me wishing for a rescue plan!)

The alienation and loneliness Charlotte feels in this large institution feels very real.

However compared to two previous works of Tom Wolfe (‘Bonfire of the Vanities’ and ‘A Man in Full’) this story has less to relate. Its’ world was primarily concerned with underdeveloped adolescents. ‘Bonfire’ was far more satirical with a diversity of characters and explored class relationships in America. The same could be said for ‘A Man in Full’ which also had a wider geographical range.

Also ‘Charlotte’ was far too long and repetitious. Too many frat parties were described. There was no need to have so many upper class girl snobs. Drunkenness, debauchery and snootiness were constantly recurring – like advertisements on T.V.

But Tom Wolfe never fails to entertain and enlighten. I will be following his next work.

Why what is what it does not work. Tom Wolfe, I like. It is the only gonzo journalist who was in more a writer. We can discuss for Truman Capote. He realizes this delicate balance between report and fiction. But why is he led astray in this novel campus. The romance it is not his thing.
The misadventures of this a little bit stupid girl have difficulty in fascinating me. Well It is Tom, we forgive him. An average book of Wolfe will always be better than a good book of the other writers (I shall not quote from name).
On the other hand, the last one on Miami is good.