Admission

Author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
Stars: 5
Review by: patco81

One of the best books I've read this year! Portia Nathan, admissions officer at Princeton University, finds her complacent personal and professional lives upended by a routine recruiting trip to an obscure New England alternative high school. The storyline, complete w/intriguing subplots, intellectual discourse, references to actual Princeton and Northeast locations, and detailed observations and inside peeks into the excruciatingly complex process of college admissions, moves quickly and is very well-written. (The one flaw is a predictable head-over-heels romantic encounter that threatens to turn the book into a soap opera melodrama.) For me, having spent two+ decades, including college years (two of them as a work-study participant in the admissions office!), in central NJ, delving into this novel was a nostalgic return to those times. A provocative and absorbing read - and don't overlook the multiple meanings of the one-word title.