Heavy Reserve and RA Alert: ‘Admission’
The reviewers’ darling this week is Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz. About a woman who is a Princeton admissions officer, several of the reviews say that, in addition to being “compulsively readable,” it could be used as a tip sheet for over-anxious parents, trying to get their kids into the Ivy League.
Some libraries are showing heavy reserve lists.
Entertainment Weekly, Admission reviewed by Leah Greenblatt, A-
…compulsively readable…At 449 pages, it’s a doorstop-worthy tome. … But…[it] seldom drags…Each chapter begins with a neat device: short excerpts from (fictional, we presume) application essays that range from wrenching to utterly inane…Admission is that rare thing in a novel: both juicy and literary, a genuinely smart read with a human, beating heart.
USA Today, Bob Minzesheimer, Admission unseals hushed secrets behind ivied walls
Korelitz, who has been a part-time reader in Princeton’s admission office, weaves in larger questions about privilege, entitlement and diversity and the problems of having 25% of all college applications going to 1% of the schools…At heart it’s a love story — love lost, lost again, then found.
LA Times, Wendy Smith, Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz
An old-fashioned novelist in the best sense, Korelitz takes a subject of consuming contemporary interest and uses it to frame a portrait of a wonderfully complex character confronting the choices she’s made and the damage she’s done, mostly to herself.
Chicago Tribune, Elizabeth Taylor, Editor’s Choice: Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz
An engaging read, not yet another stereotypical look at crazed applicants
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