I Am Charlotte Simmons

I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, 676 pages

She is Charlotte Simmons, the valedictorian of her high school in the tiny Appalachian town of Sparta, North Carolina, with qualifications impressive enough to earn her a full scholarship to elite DuPont University.  Having long held herself aloof from the squalid debauchery of her hillbilly peers as a result of both her Momma's uncompromising religious moralism and her academic mentor's elevated vision of the life of the mind, Charlotte is wholly unprepared for the sophisticated decadence she finds at DuPont.  The present life of her peers is the reckless pursuit of pleasure in preparation for their future pursuit of wealth and power, and Charlotte is alone and far from home.  Who is Charlotte Simmons?

Wolfe began his career as a novelist late in life, after having already made himself famous as a journalist and cartoonist.  It is precisely his sharp observations that power his writing, although it is his connected determination to always present these observations squarely, without sensationalism but also without flinching, no matter how sensitive the topic, which is his most valuable trait.  Wolfe's deep satire is not caricature or parody, but a revelation of the absurdities we ordinarily fail - or refuse - to notice.  Meanwhile, I Am Charlotte Simmons is surprisingly moving, with it being much easier to become emotionally invested in Charlotte's choices and fate than in those of Sherman McCoy.  Unfortunately, the book does fall apart somewhat about two-thirds of the way through, as though Wolfe knew the ending he wanted to get to but had to derail the story to get it there, although even here there are moments worth remembering.