Last time Le Club du Style was in London, she gave me this novel as a present. Neither of us had heard of the author or the book. It turned out to be a really good read, about teenage years, fitting perfectly with my current theme (some would say obsession, tut tut tut) of teen years fiction. Prep did a really good job at making me remember the awkwardness of this period and the contrast between how grown up I used to feel and how young and immature I really was. I am not the most mature person in the world now either, but I feel like I finally acquired some sort of wisdom and serenity about my life and who I am that I couldn’t have had at 16. I remember quite fondly the heaviness of things in my teenager’s life. How everything was dramatic and definitive, and how the smallest of events took immense proportions (“he walked past me in the corridor, he MUST love me”).
It also made me regret wishing away those years of my life, wanting so badly to be a grown up. Now I am a grown up, and what more do I get? Not much. A better wardrobe, and some extra wisdom.
The second effect this novel had on me is that it gave me the will to start writing again. I was so distraught after losing all my writings in a previous computer death that I lost my motivation. Reading Prep made me regain it somehow. Now, now, this doesn’t mean I am suddenly going to quit being a sloth and finally write this first novel, but it means that ideas have started flowing, and that at some point a project might emerge from my muddy brain, so stay tuned…
Goodnight to all my human and animal friends.
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