As Promised

My book report. First - background. Sometimes there are clean days (showering in the am is acceptible) and sometimes there are dirty days (when you may as well wait to shower late in the day since you'll be cleaning, etc). I thought Saturday was going to be a clean day, so I showered in the morning. Really no day when it's 90 degrees is a clean day, but that aside. The bf decided it was going to be a dirty afternoon, so he gardened. Fortunately, we went to a bookfair about a month back and had never removed the purchased books from his trunk. So we have somewhat of a roving bookshelf. Hence, I began reading Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld on Saturday and finished it last night (Tuesday). Needless to say it was a quick read.
And now an analog: Prep is to High School as I am Charlotte Simmons (by Tom Wolfe) is to College. Both of these books tell the story of young girls who despite their geographically undesirable upbringings (Prep's protagonist, Lee, is from South Bend, Indiana and Charlotte hails from West Virginia) are away from their families and try to fit in at East Coast academic institutions.There are some other differences in these works. Prep is a first person narrative while Charlotte is third person. Prep comes across as sincere, while Charlottee seems to be an ironic view of the multi-cultured sects of the college campus. Prep takes place over four years, while Charlotte's story is over the course of one. Also, Lee has a fairly normal view of sex, while sex is shameful and dirty to Charlotte. Both of these characters ilicit sympathy from the reader, however, most readers will probably be able to relate to Lee more.
One aspect of Prep that struck me as strange was that at certain times Lee would tell us how her older self viewed the actions of her younger self. But, these observations were interspersed at various times and not consistent throughout the novel. Also, she tells us what all the characters "grow up to be" except for her. Are we to imagine her future?
Despite these flaws (at least they're flaws to me), I suspect that the average female reader would probably enjoy reading Prep and be able to recognize themselves at least somewhat in Lee's struggles to figure out her place in her family, her school, with her friends, and with the boys. If there are any men still reading this post, my advice would be don't event think about picking up this book and go back to playing your videogame/watching baseball.
If you've read either of these books, or have any other recommendations, feel free to share. Look forward to my Cryptonomicon review in approximately 6 months.