I Am Charlotte Simmons

Version: Unabridged
Author: Tom Wolfe
Narrator: Dylan Baker
Genres: Fiction
Publisher: MacMillan Audio
Date: November 2004
Length: 14 hours, 20 minutes
Ratings:
Formats :
  • CD
Tell Your Friends:

Overview

America's "peerless observer" ("People) uncovers college life--from jocks to mutants, dormcest to tailgating--plus race, class, sex, and basketball
Dupont University--the Olympian halls of learning housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition...Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a sheltered freshman from North Carolina, who has come here on full scholarship. But Charlotte soon learns, to her mounting dismay, that for the uppercrust coeds of Dupont, sex, Cool, and kegs trump academic achievement every time.
As Charlotte encounters Dupont's privileged elite--her roommate, Beverly, a fleshy, Groton-educated Brahmin in lusty pursuit of lacrosse players; Jojo Johanssen, the only white starting player on Dupont's godlike basketball team, whose position is threatened by a hotshot black freshman from the projects; the Young Turn of Saint Ray fraternity, Hoyt Thorpe, whose heady sense of entitlement and social domination is clinched by his accidental brawl with a bodyguard for the governor of California; and Adam Geller, one of the Millennial Mutants who run the university's "independent" newspaper and who consider themselves the last bastion of intellectual endeavor on the sex-crazed, jock- obsessed campus--she gains a new, revelatory sense of her own power, that of her difference and of her very innocence, but little does she realize that she will act as a catalyst in all of their lives.
With his signature eye for detail, Tom Wolfe draws on extensive observation of campuses across the country to immortalize college life in the '00s." I Am Charlotte Simmons is the much-anticipated triumph ofAmerica's master chronicler.

Reviews (8)

I Am Charlotte SImmons

Written by Michael Scott from Santa Cruz, CA on July 16th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 2/5

This is my 2nd Tom Wolfe novel. My review really borders on a 2-3. His banal portrayal of college life in the Ivy League was tedious, to say the least. This story would have been best served at half its length (25 cds). I was disappointed, as the previous novel I read was quite enjoyable.

I am Charoltte Simmons

Written by Anonymous on December 8th, 2006

  • Book Rating: 4/5

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It is true that towards the end it does get a little wordy. But I did find myself relating to the main character, despite the fact that at times a real person would never react the way she did. I also found myself rooting for or aginst other characters which is always a sign of a good book. The reader did a good job and was easy to listen to.

I Am Charlotte Simmons

Written by D Hansen on February 16th, 2006

  • Book Rating: 3/5

This is the first abridged version of a book that I have listened to. It will be the last. The reader was excellent but the continuity left great gaps. I thought it was a predictable and not very enlightening, though humorous treatment of collegate life. Maybe the unabridged version would have been better.

I am Charlotte Simmons

Written by Andrew S. from Kennett Square, PA on February 14th, 2006

  • Book Rating: 2/5

As a huge Tom Wolfe fan, this was a disappointment. Wolfe is a master at offering keen insights into modern American society. Instead of his usual adroitness and finesse, here we are clubbed over the head with a cast of over-exaggerated, stereotypical characters. Also, closing parts of the story were clearly "shoe-horned" in at the last minute in order to make more sense (eg. Hoyt Thorpe coming out of Professor Quat's class). If you haven't read them, try Bonfire of the Vanities or A Man in Full. Also, Hooking-Up is excellent, especially his "Rococo Marxist" bit.

One of the Funniest Books in YEARS

Written by Paul Crabtree on December 15th, 2005

  • Book Rating: 5/5

Luckily, I am not a college freshman, or the parent of one, and so my enjoyment of this wonderful book was not sullied by apprehensiveness. It is a laugh-out-loud indictment of campus life that made me glad my college days are over.

I am Charlotte Simmons

Written by Anonymous on October 24th, 2005

  • Book Rating: 1/5

Now I know why this book is so blasted big. WAY too much discription, dude. Pages and PAGES of what she/he looked like/said/did until I thought I would scream! Cut the BLAH BLAH BLAH and get on with the story already! This was my first AND LAST Tom Wolfe

Is This Written By Some Other Tom Wolfe?

Written by Anonymous from Los Angeles, CA on August 1st, 2005

  • Book Rating: 1/5

I'm just halfway through, and I can't believe this lifeless mess was written by the man who gave us Bonfire of the Vanities. I guess I'll soldier on through -- I hate to give up on a book. But this comes close. There are certainly Wolfian moments -- but they're few and very far between.

Somewhat of a Letdown

Written by Daniel Wainwright from Fresno, CA on May 16th, 2005

  • Book Rating: 1/5

The book got off to a good start and seemed really very interesting. Unfortunately, it really fell apart in the last 1/3 of the story. For a main character that seemed so strong and self-motivating, in the end, she lost her identity and only became interested with what others thought of her, who she was with and whom she was dating. I expected a lot more from Charlotte Simmons.

Author Details

Author Details

Wolfe, Tom

Tom Wolfe grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and graduated from Washington and Lee University. He received his doctorate in American Studies from Yale University. Mr. Wolfe worked as a reporter for the Springfield Union, The Washington Post, and the New York Herald Tribune. His writing has also appeared in New York magazine, Esquire, and Harper's.

In 1965 Farrar, Straus and Giroux published The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, and in 1968 The Pump House Gang and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test were published simultaneously. Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers was published in 1970.

In 1975, FSG published The Painted Word, an incandescent, hilarious look at the world of modern art; it caused as much controversy as anything Mr. Wolfe has written. Mauve Gloves and Madmen, Clutter and Vine, a collection of essays, was published by FSG in 1976.

The Right Stuff, a national bestseller published by FSG in 1979, won the American Book Award for general nonfiction. The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters named Mr. Wolfe as recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award for distinguished service in the field of journalism. From Bauhaus to Our House, his distinctive look at contemporary architecture, was published in the fall of 1981 and became another national bestseller; in 1982, FSG published The Purple Decades: A Reader. Mr. Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities was published by FSG in 1987, and went on to become one of the top ten bestselling books of the decade.

Tom Wolfe lives in New York City. On November 6,1998, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published a new novel by Tom Wolfe entitled A Man in Full.