Admission

by Jean Hanff Korelitz

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Work details

Book details

Title	Admission
Author	Jean Hanff Korelitz
Rating
Tags	New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Adoption, Single Mother, Mother Daughter Relationships, Academic Workplace, Read 2009
Collections	Your library, Early Reviewers
Your review	Portia is a work-a-holic who buried herself in her work as an admissions officer at Princeton at the cost of all of her personal relationships. She is estrangered from her 1970's hippie mom, now in her 60's, who cannot understand what happened to the relationship she had with her daughter. Her long-term live-in boyfriend has left her to father a child with a near-stranger. She is ignoring a man from Maine who is pursuing her romantically, even though she is attracted to him. She has, instead of living a full and rich life, lost herself in the lives of 17-year-olds who want to go to Princeton. Ultimately, the secret she has kept for 17 years is revealed, and the reader gets a small glimmer of understanding as to why Portia has behaves as she has done. I found the book to be overly long. There are endlessly descriptions of Princeton applicants, their obsessiveness, their neediness. There is a long and complex telling of Portia's secret. There are multiple backstories happening, some that seem to have no really strong purpose. 100 pages of editing-out would have made this a much better story. As it was, I kept falling asleep as I was trying to read it, as so many pages seemed so much like every other one. I came away feeling unsatisfied with the tale's conclusion.
Other authors 1
Publication	Grand Central Publishing (2009), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 464 pages
Publication date	2009
ISBN	0446540706 / 9780446540704
LC classification
Dewey	813.54
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired
Date started
Date finished	2009-07-01
Summary 1	Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2009)
Comments
BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Wikipedia citation
Data source	amazon.com