Admission
Admission book cover

Admission

Mass Market Paperback – January 15, 2013

Price
$16.99
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1455529803
Dimensions
4.25 x 1.5 x 7 inches
Weight
10.9 ounces

Description

About the Author Jean Hanff Korelitz was born and raised in New York and graduated from Dartmouth College and Clare College, Cambridge. She is the author of one book of poems, The Properties of Breath , and three previous novels, A Jury of Her Peers, The Sabbathday River, The Devil and Webster, and The White Rose , as well as a novel for children, Interference Powder . She has also published essays in the anthologies Modern Love and Because I Said So , and in the magazines Vogue, Real Simple, More, Newsweek, Organic Style, Travel and Leisure (Family) , and others. She lives in Princeton, NJ with her husband (Irish poet Paul Muldoon, poetry editor at the New Yorker and Princeton poetry professor) and two children.

Features & Highlights

  • From the
  • New York Times
  • bestselling author of
  • You Should Have Known
  • (adapted as "The Undoing" on HBO) comes another page-turning masterpiece, this time on college admissions
  • now a major motion picture starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd.
  • "Admissions.
  • Admission
  • . Aren't there two sides to the word? And two opposing sides...It's what we let in, but it's also what we let out."For years, 38-year-old Portia Nathan has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career as a Princeton University admissions officer and her dependable domestic life. Her reluctance to confront the truth is suddenly overwhelmed by the resurfacing of a life-altering decision, and Portia is faced with an extraordinary test. Just as thousands of the nation's brightest students await her decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission.
  • Admission
  • is at once a fascinating look at the complex college admissions process and an emotional examination of what happens when the secrets of the past return and shake a woman's life to its core.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(213)
★★★★
20%
(142)
★★★
15%
(107)
★★
7%
(50)
28%
(198)

Most Helpful Reviews

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don't leave school w/o it.

Every h.s. senior's "bible"
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Long-winded and highly skimmable, but overall worth reading

I found parts of this book to be very engaging, especially the parts detailing behind the scenes insights into the college admission process. That's probably because I have a son that's starting school this Fall and we just went through the admissions process. I also enjoyed the dialogue in the story. Sadly, there were numerous pages where there were no admissions secrets and no dialogue, just loooooooooong paragraphs in which the narrator ruminates, ruminates, ruminates on all sorts of events in her life (of which there are only two of real importance). I skimmed those pages, only needing to read the first sentence of each paragraph to make sure that nothing important was going to happen to move the story along.

Overally, I enjoyed this book, but honestly didn't read about 33% of it even though I finished the novel.
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How On Earth Did This End Up On The Big Screen?

Why did I read Admission?
I work in higher education and am close to finishing up with my M.Ed. with an emphasis in higher education. Of course I would be intrigued by a fictional book about a side of college many may not see. In addition that I've always had this weird fascination with Princeton so when I discovered the main character worked for Princeton my desire to read Admission only increased.

What did I think about Portia?
I really cannot for the life of me understand how funny girl Tina Fey could play someone like Portia. Portia is a complex, deeply flawed character. Seriously this girl just needs some good therapy to work through her many, many issues. I had a hard time sympathizing with her because it seems like most of the issues in her life were her own doing and could have been avoided had she taken the time to stop and this for a moment.

What did I enjoy in the novel?
I enjoyed all the discussion revolving around the admission process at Princeton. It's much more intense than I ever could have imagined and that insight alone made this an enjoyable read for me.

What could have been trimmed?
The majority of the story. It felt like drama was added just for the sake of drama because the author worried that people would be bored by all the admission talk.

Do I think this will be a good movie?
Not so much. I'm actually really surprised this was selected to become a movie. I wonder if perhaps it's just loosely based on the book?