Prep: A Novel (Curtis Sittenfeld)

One of the most-recommended boarding school books of this century, Prep is an achingly spot-on tale of a very specific type of student at a very specific type of school. The rhythms of school, of long stretches of work punctuated by small breaks out of the cloistered world of campus is familiar, particularly in the import and meaning those small breakaway days ascribe to relationships, people, and identity. (I’m specifically talking about the “surprise holiday” early in the book; the airport scene; and Lee’s foray into haircutting.)