Review - Prep

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld is a coming of age novel. A suburban, lower middle class girl enters the world of the rich and privileged when she enrolls into a New England private boarding school. The book covers her four years there as she struggles with identity, socioeconomic boundaries, relationships, self-esteem and academic pressures. Its honest and doesn't hold back but I had a picture of the main character in my head and it totally changed about halfway though the book. Maybe that's just how people are in high school, always trying to discover themselves by redefining themselves.

My summary of this book:

boring.semi-interesting.boring.blah.blah.blah.boring.interesting.boring.

Was I this boring when I was a teenager? I recall saying "I'm bored" a lot during those years. A college professor once said something along the lines of "you only get bored if you are a boring person". Maybe I was, or still am. When you start to over analyze every detail of every human interaction it keeps you from the carpe diem moments that make life interesting and you end up with this book. I could totally relate to many parts. I'm sure everyone feels like an unspecial, out-of-place waste of space from time to time but why waste your time reading about someone else's mundane experiences when you can be doing something totally not boring or watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall for the umpteenth time?

If you want a teenage outcast diary-style story that doesn't bore you to tears try
reading

Youth in Revolt  or any Harry Potter book

or watching

Felicity  or any movie starring Michael Cera  

or surfing myspace. 

awKwARd...


Random:
You know what else is awkward, digging through a decaying sperm whale. The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale (blue whales are the biggest whales) and prey on colossal squids, which are the largest invertebrates in the world. According to wikipedia, they are called sperm whales because they have a cavity in their heads containing a white-milky waxy substance called spermaceti that people mistook for semen. Spermaceti is actually created in the spermaceti organ in the whale's head which is connected to its nasal passage. A large sperm whale can have as much as three tons of spermaceti. Who knows what that stuff is for but I know I wouldn't want that sneezed on me.