Admission

by Jean Hanff Korelitz and Nancy Lieberman

Book Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of You Should Have Known (adapted as "The Undoing" on HBO) comes another page-turning masterpiece, this time on college admissions--now a major motion... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446540706
• ISBN13: 9780446540704
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 452 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

"Admission" in both terms of the word...

Several other reviewers, as well as a character in the book, speak to the double meaning of the word "admission". One "admission" is the admittance of a fact or feeling and the other "admission" means, literally, the admission to a group, in this case to Princeton University. Portia Nathan is in her late '30's. She's a graduate from Dartmouth and has worked since graduation as an admission officer, first at Dartmouth, and then at Princeton. She's also fairly detached from life outside her job; she lives with an English professor in a companion-like way and she has a troubled, distant relationship with her mother, a fierce feminist who raised Portia as a single-mother. She has one focus and that is being good at her job. Her recruitment territory has recently changed from the Pacific states to the New England area. During one of her swings through Massachusetts - after a stop at perfect-prep school Deerfield Academy - she finds her way to a new, charter school in the wilds and meets the students, one of whom is a challenging young man in whom she develops an interest. She also meets a man, a fellow student from Dartmouth, who is now a teacher at the school. Okay, now I digress. A couple of weeks ago I read and reviewed "Nanny Returns", a poorly written - and edited - book by the authors of "The Nanny". I gave it 2 stars (and I may have been generous there!), writing that there were way too many characters and way too many plot lines. The characters were mostly little-developed caricatures and the plot lines went nowhere. I felt the exact opposite with Korelitz's novel. She also has many characters and plots, but the characters were fleshed-out and the plot lines actually went somewhere. The reader may not like where they went or the sometimes slow pace they took in getting there, but at least there WAS a plot and interesting characters. Is the book too long? Yeeeah...but I was never bored, so I can't take off a star for length. Back to "admission" and that double meaning. Korelitz writes about both in the novel. The "admission" to Princeton and Portia's own "admission" to her friends and family of something in her past she had kept well-hidden. Both are interesting and I can only thank the lucky stars that I no longer have high school-aged children who are facing the agony of applying to college. Korelitz, a resident of Princeton, NJ and the wife of the English poet Paul Muldoon, was a "reader" of admission applications for two years at Princeton. She describes in detail both the agonies of being the admission officer on one end and of the high school student - the applicant - on the other. NOT easy - either part! Korelitz's book is good reading. She uses what I think are probably real quotes from actual college applications at the beginning of every chapter. They contribute a feeling of reality in the novel.

Entertaining Story

The author did a wonderful job of explaining the Ivy admission policies. Having gone through the process with my daughter a decade ago, I can appreciate the effort the admission officers go through trying to weave a wide variety of talented students into each year's class. Nevertheless, the story is more than that of college admissions and a college admissions officer. The story line brings up many issues, such as aging parents, lackluster relationships, rejection, depression, unwanted pregnancies, adoption, finding love, and taking chances. Korelitz forces the reader to face these issues as she creates a captivating story. Although the book is long, I found it difficult to put down and read it in a day, happy to have found a new favorite author.

Very Enjoyable

I really enjoyed reading this story set on Princeton's campus about the life of an admissions officer. Portia, the admissions officer, sits in judgement of incoming freshmen yet hasn't reflected on her own life in quite some time until circumstances force her to take a look at some of her own decisions. Surprising, thoughtful and quite enjoyable!

Food for Thought for Parents

I picked up this novel for the same reason many readers do--to get a glimpse inside the admissions process at one of our country's most competitive universities. Also, as a Princeton alum myself (class of 1983), I'm always up for a chance to see how Old Nassau is presented in fiction, which is often very different from my own experiences. Although I agree with several reviewers here that the novel started slowly, by the time admissions officer Portia Nathan is having a not-so-kosher intimate dinner with a teacher from a school she's just visited, I was completely hooked and couldn't put the book down. Yes, much of the plot relies on coincidental meetings and the outcome is somewhat predictable, but the book's intelligence, insight into complex emotional issues, and elegant prose more than made up for these shortcomings. I have to add that the sex scenes are extremely well done: classy, believable and touching. I'm an erotica writer and especially hard to please in this area, but I reread these scenes a few times to study up for my own work! I also enjoyed the excerpts from student essays at the beginning of each chapter, which essentially place the reader in the role of admissions officer who judges each autobiographical piece as genuine, coached, sincere or laughably immature. While I was certainly expecting to get a glimpse into to secret mysteries of the admissions process, Korelitz arouses empathy for the people on the other side of the application as well. I was also surprised how vividly her portrayal of the hopeful teenagers took me back to my own high school days, when Princeton seemed like the only answer to all of my ambitions (btw, it never was, those answers were always within ME though it took me years to discover that). Of course, back then the admittance rate was a generous 17% rather than the ever dwindling single figures of today. Perhaps the most poignant feature of this book is its examination of parenthood. Misguided parent figures abound--parents who abandon their children either literally or emotionally, who push their kids to apply to Princeton and hound the admissions office, and worst of all who buy into the myth that admission to a certain school both validates a child's worth and will bestow anything upon them that they can't learn themselves at some other college. The single good parent in the story is John Halsey, Portia's former college mate, who adopts an African boy, but then he is rather relentlessly, if charmingly, good at everything. Actually, there are two other parents who deserve admiration and we meet them on the very last page of the book where Korelitz thanks her own parents who "could not have cared less where I went to college." As a parent myself, this is the real and very satisfying ending of the book--nothing contrived about it. Indeed, if you have young kids, this novel will not only entertain and engage you, it will make you face important questions about your own attitudes and ambit

Rich and compelling

What a great book! I went into this with some trepidation - it's 450 pages long and I have a 10-month-old. But the mounting urgency of the plot, and the protagonist's secret, which is gradually revealed, pulled me in with increasing force. I've always been interested in college admissions, and would even like to be an admissions officer someday, and Korelitz's insider description of this world is fascinating. The emotional portrait of the protagonist is equally compelling. Korelitz's protagonist, Portia Nathan, is a reserved, intelligent, careful woman who reveals herself to the reader piece by piece. She's a Dartmouth graduate who works for the Princeton admissions office, and takes a lot of flak for it - mostly from angry parents who think getting in should be easier than it is. What no one knows about her is that she's kept a secret, from everyone, for years. This is a restrained but deeply moving book, and intellectually stimulating as well. I look forward to more from Korelitz.