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Curtis Sittenfeld: Prep

Teen dream of swish boarding school turns out to be hotbed of adolescent angst and ambition.

Best-selling American author Curtis Sittenfeld discusses her acclaimed debut novel, Prep. Set in an exclusive boarding school in north-eastern America, Prep is an insightful, caustic and funny coming-of-age story and a savage dissection of class, race, and gender.

Clever, aspirational Lee Fiora is fourteen years old when her father drops her at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts that she has won a scholarship to. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, she becomes a shrewd observer of, and ultimately a participant in, their snobby culture and rituals.

She forms intense friendships with other girls; complicated relationships with teachers and an all-consuming infatuation with a boy from the cool crowd, all of which leads to conflicts with her parents back home in the mid-West, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant.

Other novels about boarding schools mentioned in this programme include Make your Home among Strangers by Jennine Cap贸 Crucet, Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School by Kendra James and Black Ice by Lorene Cary.

(Photo: Curtis Sittenfeld. Credit: Jenn Ackerman)

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49 minutes

Last on

Wed 10 May 2023 23:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 6 May 2023 11:06GMT
  • Sun 7 May 2023 02:06GMT
  • Sun 7 May 2023 13:06GMT
  • Sun 7 May 2023 16:06GMT
  • Wed 10 May 2023 09:06GMT
  • Wed 10 May 2023 23:06GMT

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