Don't be fooled by the cover of Groton-alum Curtis Sittenfeld's classy debut novel -- Prep. While the pink and green grosgrain belt around the book's middle may bring to mind your wasted summer on Nantucket or that yachtie you fondled at the Newport-Bermuda after-party, Prep's protagonist is not an elitist snob like you and I.
Rather, Lee Fiora is a likeable, intelligent fish out of water at the fictional Ault School in Massachusetts. Hailing from Indiana rather than Westport and attending Ault on -- gasp! -- a scholarship, Lee finds herself thrown into an unfamiliar world of wealth, privilege and classist one-upmanship.
Sittenfeld reveals herself to be a keen observer of adolescent Social Darwinism, describing with perfect pitch the goings-on behind the dizzying sheen of blonde hair, pink cable-knits and, of course, grosgrain belts at prestigious Ault. The observant Lee soon realizes she must be shrewd and slowly carves a niche for herself at Ault despite her status as an outsider.
If you were one of us lucky few that hopped a plane to boarding school at 13, you will recognize yourself in Prep, and you'll probably cringe. Sittenfeld captures the self-marketing tactics of rich kids with wit and clarity. She is, after all, an insider.
Luckily, the descriptions of teen sex in Prep won't make you uncomfortable a la the messy, overly graphic scenes in dirty-old-man Tom Wolfe's latest effort, I am Charlotte Simmons. Lee's love life is rendered with compassion and will probably bring back embarrassing memories rather than last night's dinner (thanks, Wolfe).
Prep is certainly not a Cinderella tale; Sittenfeld's prose is sharp and subtle and doesn't read like an after-school-special on the evils of snobbery or the benefits of ambition. Lee Fiora is not presented as a victim -- indeed, she is as flawed as the social butterflies she studies and eventually emulates. Sittenfeld's skill lies in dissecting America's class system honestly and dispassionately.
You don't have to live at 3637 Locust or know the links at St. Andrews like the back of your hand to relate to Prep. As Lee herself puts it, in high school, whether you're one of the haves or the have-nots, you're "always imagining something else"
