College Girl

Patricia Weitz

Penguin, 2008 - Fiction - 328 pages

College Girlis a vivid portrait of life on a college campus and a poignant look at what happens to a twenty-year-old college senior (and her self-esteem) when she loses her virginity and falls for the wrong guy.

Just as Curtis Sittenfeld’s bestselling Prepdrew us into the world of boarding school and its social relationships, College Girlperfectly captures the experience of college, of being a student at a big state university— complete with its jocks and hipsters, frats and sororities, drinking rituals and cafeteria food, its economic, academic, and social pressures—and how it gets funneled into the campus culture of collegiate sex and dating. In particular, College Girlreveals what all this means for a girl inexperienced in sex and romance, dealing with the demons she’s brought from home.

College senior Natalie Bloom is beautiful and ambitious, but also incredibly insecure and painfully uncomfortable with the subject of sex—let alone the act. She’s awkward at developing friendships with girls, but it’s sexual attention from boys that really makes her lose her cool. At age twenty, she’s a virgin—never having had a boyfriend. Avoiding her peers, Natalie hides out most weekends in the library. That is, until she meets Patrick, her fantasy (she thinks) of a cultured, intellectual Prince Charming—and everything changes. But the more time they spend together, the more Patrick brings out her worst insecurities. Natalie loses her virginity before she’s ready, and as their sexual activity escalates, Natalie’s emotional responses become dangerously self-destructive. Ultimately, she must take extreme measures to reclaim her sense of self, her confidence, and her ambition.

An insightful, moving, and achingly self-aware novel that offers the psychological and emotional insight of Judy Blume and Ann Brashares, College Girlwill resonate with anyone who remembers the often awkward transition from adolescence to adulthood.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ennie - LibraryThing

Natalie transfers into U Conn and has to grow up fast. I would hate her life, and probably would not have made the same choices. This was basically a downer, but does capture post-adolescent angst.

COLLEGE GIRL

User Review  - Jane Doe - Kirkus

Fragile coed with working-class roots struggles to come out of her shell during her last year at an East Coast university.Pretty and smart (even though she has trouble seeing it), 20-year-old Natalie ...

Contents

• Section 1: 1
• Section 2: 22
• Section 3: 37
• Section 4: 51
• Section 5: 66
• Section 6: 76
• Section 7: 90
• Section 8: 110
• Section 9: 129
• Section 10: 135
• Section 11: 165
• Section 12: 176
• Section 13: 185
• Section 14: 195
• Section 15: 209
• Section 16: 223
• Section 17: 236
• Section 18: 241
• Section 19: 251
• Section 20: 263
• Section 21: 271
• Section 22: 286
• Section 23: 293
• Section 24: 327

About the author

Patricia Weitz has worked for The Nation, The New Yorker, and Los Angeles Times. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the filmmaker Paul Weitz, and their two children.

Bibliographic information

• Title: College Girl
• Author: Patricia Weitz
• Publisher: Penguin, 2008
• ISBN: 1594488533, 9781594488535
• Length: 328 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Contemporary Women