Admission

#442
Title: Admission
Author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Year: 2009
452 pages

Although I liked most of this novel, I can only give it three stars because I didn't think the conclusion was the best of the possibilities. I liked the detail and characters, and I figured out most of the plot pretty early on. I thought the protagonist's final dilemma wasn't adequately developed. I would have preferred that her act wasn't successful, which still could have resolved her psychological impasse. I question whether someone so scrupulous would have engaged in this behavior. To say she would suggests a profound moral breakdown, not an illuminating catharsis. In addition, her insistence on Princeton for the young man utterly undermines the sincerity of her and others' heretofore consistent assertions that there are many fine schools that might be a better fit for a given applicant.