I Am Charlotte Simmons: Amazon.ca: Books

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

(What's this?)

Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)

aeronautics(1)

astronautics(1)

history of science(1)

history of technology(1)

tom wolfe(1)

Customer Reviews

19 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting read, May 26 2005

By

Sancho Mahle (Charlotte, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am Charlotte Simmons (Hardcover)

This book is very well written. The characters depicted and the nature of the setting succinctly captures college campus life where there is sex, rivalries, friendship, peer pressure, identity search, some education and sports. This highly entertaining book by a remarkable writer should be treated seriously. Also recommended: The USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, NIGHT FALL

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, April 1 2005

By

Kayla Sinclair - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am Charlotte Simmons (Hardcover)

An extremely enjoyabe novel if not earth shattering. Familiar territory, but still interesting and well written. Somewhat similar to the voice used in My Fractured Life, Story of My Life, and Prep. A fairly fast read and highly stimulating.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, Sep 8 2005

By

Ken Breadner (Waterloo, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am Charlotte Simmons (Hardcover)

This was my first foray into Wolfe, and I'm intrigued enough to read more of his work.
I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS is not without its flaws, and some of them are fairly glaring. For one thing, Wolfe could easily have shed 150-200 pages off the total page count. Charlotte's ruminations as events progress start to repeat and repeat and repeat...we get it already, Tom! The girl wants to be "cool"!
Other reviewers have questioned Wolfe's vernacular, which I think is missing the point in a social satire. Kids (and these are very much kids) may not say these exact phrases at your alma mater today, but that doesn't mean they aren't saying them elsewhere or that the meaning's in any way unclear. I can tell you from experience that the "F--k Patois" is universal.
The other not-necessarily-terrible-but-still-disconcerting thing is that Wolfe's plot meanders hither and yon: it's there, but this book is largely a collection of scenes rather than a flowing work. Minor nitpick: my God, this guy uses more italics than Cosmopolitan.

The good things about this novel are many, and largely offset the bad. The last point first: what scenes! They ooze reality and dramatic tension, and some of them are laugh-out-loud funny.
I found myself rooting for different characters throughout the novel (my interest in Charlotte deteriorated as her angst increased). Some of the lesser lights are very well drawn. I thought Jojo and Adam were particularly well crafted. Wolfe's also got a real turn of phrase. Most importantly, he's managed to nail down a piece of collegiate darkness and shove it out into the light for us to see...and any reader saying things can't be THAT bad is fooling himself.)
In short, I enjoyed this read almost in spite of myself.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 19 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 646 reviews 3.4 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars I Am Not Charlotte Simmons
I have never found a book so excruciating to finish, nor loathed a character so much as Charlotte Simmons. Read more

Published on Jan 3 2009 by Emily M.

4.0 out of 5 stars Satiric genius
For a few short days, I found myself immersed in the world of Charlotte Simmons, which was akin to remembering my uni days, except focused and accented through a fun-house mirror... Read more

Published on April 5 2008 by L. YIP