"Old School" by Tobias Wolff (Bloomsbury, 2003) is about a prep school student who plagiarises a short story in order to meet a literary hero. It is easily my favourite novel as the writing is so finely woven- the silky sentences soothe the angsty teen in inside. I remember trying to get backstage to meet rock stars, as a teen, as a Morrissey obsessed 27 year old. The narrator's need to meet Robert Frost echoed my own outstretched hand, trying in vain to touch Moz.
"Prep" by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House, 2005) is about an ordinary middle class girl at an elite New England prep school. As a Kiwi, it was fun to play voyeur and experience this rarefied WASPy world from the perspective of Lee.
"The Rector of Justin" by Louis Auchincloss (Mariner Books, 2002 (first published in 1964)) is, as the title states, the lifestory of a rector at said fictitious prep school but told through six narrators. A cousin of Jackie K, Auchincloss was part of the world he wrote about, hence his authenticity. His style can be dry, and the religious references don't interest me, but the different points of view intrigue me.
The matriarch in "Maine" by Courtney Sullivan (Vintage, 2011) leads a simple life- church, gardening, and reading. Her daughters, however, seem to be just waiting for her to die. She lives in a lovely cottage, in a great Maine location, and don't her daughters know it?! The characters are lively and the family dynamics ring true.
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