false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167944777m/28289.jpg 28289 4 Having penned <I>Election</I>, a great novel of high-school manners, Tom Perrotta gives us <I>Joe College</I>, a great novel about college mores. In 1982, one Yale junior struggles with George Eliot, dorm blanket bingo, dining-hall dish-line duty, a massive crush on a girl in love with his favorite prof, daily cards and calls from a girl back home in New Jersey, and a lush profusion of authentically individual yet instantly recognizable undergrad eccentrics. After an evening of ritualistic bong hits, kimchee feasting, and sympathetic discussion of Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist who shot President McKinley, Danny thinks of his parents: "Was this what they scrimped and sacrificed for all those years? So their son could spend his Tuesday nights drinking beer, smoking dope, eating weird food, and learning to see the assassin's side of the story?"<p> Yup, that's the way it was, and Perrotta's immense strength is to give moment-by-moment immediacy to his hero's tortuous internal monologue. Instead of dumping his Jersey girl, Danny figures, "if I avoided her long enough, she'd get tired of waiting and supply my half of the conversation on her own, thereby sparing me the unpleasantness of having to be the bad guy." Yet he is also capable of heroism, as when he impulsively defies no-neck Mafiosi who menace his dad's "Roach Coach" lunch truck, which Danny drives to blue-collar work sites during school breaks. What gives the story structure is the collision in our hero's soul between his former life and the world of towers, moats, and upward mobility. He can't quite identify with his hometown reverence for Bruce Springsteen, but it rubs him wrong to see Springsteen LPs played "for the enjoyment of people who were going to end up being the bosses of the people the Boss was singing about. Nobody in Entryway C was born to run."<p> <I>Election</I> may have a better plot, but <I>Joe College</I> scoots along like a waterskeeter on a marvelous stream of consciousness. Tom Perrotta was born to write. <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 901864 2000 Joe College total:1190|5:91|4:371|3:516|2:181|1:31| 1190 3880 1546 128 2 2 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sun Jun 17 10:51:25 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 17 10:57:04 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 true false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 21 11:34:19 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 16 12:06:52 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 30 15:52:12 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 30 16:20:00 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Jul 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 09:29:14 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 21 17:12:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Apr 18 08:55:07 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 18 08:59:20 -0700 2007
Kind of a simple story. College boy likes college girl, college boy unknowingly gets involved with townie girl from back home, college boy gets townie girl preggers. Add in some stories about working at the dining hall and some random gang violence (even t...more...]]> 1 1 false false Thu Oct 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 30 23:04:14 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 23:05:43 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Wed Dec 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Aug 05 14:22:26 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 14:22:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 true false Sat May 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 08:23:48 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 08:28:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 12:39:14 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 12:42:39 -0800 2009
Nope. Partly I've decided that books whose main characters ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Jun 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 20:43:05 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 19:37:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Mar 23 07:41:36 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 07:17:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 07:09:24 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 18:40:28 -0700 2009 Joe College is more cliche than classic. We're set up to root for Danny, a Yale junior from working class New Jersey who spends his vacations driving his dad's lunch truck to office parks and construction sites. Our sympathy for him is presumably supposed to increase when Danny learns ...more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Thu Jul 31 05:28:58 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 26 07:39:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Oct 30 08:05:52 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 09:03:46 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 30 08:05:30 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false true Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Jul 26 13:38:58 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 13:49:23 -0700 2009 2 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Jan 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 07:19:15 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 07:23:14 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 27 19:25:56 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 19:33:27 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 17 08:29:54 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 19:41:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 19 19:11:38 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 19 19:11:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 16:36:32 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 07:33:22 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=28289