I Am Reading Trash.

I shouldn't say that. I am in fact reading Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. I am only halfway through it, but unless it takes a quick turn, I can't honestly call it trash. Maybe fluff. Its actually a fairly modest look at prep school life, with none of the sex or drugs of say I Am Charlotte Simmons.

Is this a good thing? I don't know. So far the novel is an interesting story about a mid-western girl who goes away to a pretentious boarding school (clearly based on Andover). She serves as an excellent foil for examining the life of the children of the rich and powerful; at once she is an insider with access to all, but she is an out of place loner who can interpret things as an outsider. Unfortunately, the character has yet to really connect to anything (like a deeper meaning) to make this book "good".

As a prep schooler myself, I can relate to some of the shallow characterizations, but they are all taken to an extreme that feels cheapening. Hopefully, Sittenfeld's next book will be a tell-all about life at that crappy DC boys school where she works, oooh stories about kids giving each other wedgies and getting in fights with other prep schoolers.....