PREP is a delightful novel that focuses on Lee Fiora, who hails
from South Bend, Indiana and decides to go to a posh boarding
school near Boston. Ault is filled with students who are so
privileged that they don't need cash on campus, whereas Lee is on
scholarship. For most of her first year, Lee is friendly with her
two roommates but is mostly friendless. Then she becomes best
friends with Martha, and things get a little easier. But throughout
high school, Lee feels the usual teen angst compounded by the fact
that she really is an outsider, no matter how comfortable she
becomes with the school.

Lee is also never completely honest with her family about her
feelings concerning Ault. She is fundamentally close to her family,
but as with many teenagers, her relationship with them changes as
she gets older. Lee makes things harder for herself though by not
accepting that she is indeed an outsider and doing her own thing, a
fact that several friends mention along the way. This all comes to
a head near the end of senior year. At this point, she has been
intimate with a boy but was not in a real relationship with him.
Nonetheless, Lee becomes downright nostalgic about a school that
changed her life but never really embraced her.

Fortunately, this 400-page tome is filled with fascinating
characters. There's Dede, Lee's roommate from freshman year who is
both bristly and friendly throughout high school. Sin-Jun, Lee's
other roommate from freshman year, later tries to kill herself
after an unsuccessful relationship with another woman. There's
Conchita, who Lee assumes is on scholarship but is actually
ridiculously rich. Conchita has a limo pick the girls up one day
when they meet her mother in town for lunch. There's Aspeth, an
uber-popular girl about whom rock songs are written. Cross Sugarman
is a young man who everyone likes a lot, including Lee, and Darden
Prittard is a black guy from the Bronx who is friendly with
everyone.

As for the teachers, Ms. Moray is from the Midwest and teaches
English. Her first teaching assignment is at Ault, and she tries
too hard in all the wrong ways. Ms. Prosek is an advisor who
doesn't stick up for Lee when things get rough. And who can forget
Aubrey, a shy boy who develops a crush on Lee when he becomes her
math tutor.

Even minor characters, such as Little Washington, a scholarship
student who stole from Lee's dorm-mates freshman year, stay with
readers long after they've left the school.

Curtis Sittenfeld utilizes these characters to tell a coming-of-age
story, give a snapshot of prep school life, and subtly explore
class and race. Sittenfeld writes from the perspective of Lee as a
24-year-old who is living in an unmentioned city. Throughout the
book we get glimpses of the characters' lives after high school,
which gives depth to the story. There are a few times when
Sittenfeld offers too much analysis and explanation, and on one
occasion her foreshadowing gives part of the story away. But for
the most part, her story is flawless.

Sittenfeld clearly has an insider's perspective of boarding school
life. Her protagonist is defensive about people's perceptions of
prep life, and there are a number of details that only can be known
by someone who has experienced prep school firsthand. It's doubtful
that Sittenfeld's story is autobiographical, and it hardly matters
if it is. Sittenfeld won a Seventeen fiction contest when
she was 16, and her journalism has appeared in national
publications. Clearly, her writing speaks for itself.