No one delivers a slice of fictional America better than Tom Wolfe. I Am Charlotte Simmons captures college life with the same powerful scope that The Bonfire Of The Vanities magnified the barracuda of 1980’s greed. Where Bonfire exposed naked power, those who had reached the top of the mountain and those still at its base being exploited by a ruthless media that had entrenched itself between them, Charlotte Simmons describes a more subdued force that masquerades as academia while beating with a chilly, unforgiving corporate heart.

Charlotte Simmons, down home freshman with a scholarship, doesn’t understand this power. Dupont University, in her eyes, is a seat of learning with all the imagery and mirage of the Ivy League. Jojo Johanssen, star basketball player, white, smart, wants to be smarter but is surrounded by team mates that place sports ahead of class work. Vernon Congers, the ghetto hoop star whose ruthless game turns the court into a war zone. Jojo and Vernon inhabit a different Dupont than Charlotte perceives. The basketball players enjoy the academic greed that keeps gifts and SUV’s coming their way as long as they win games. Vance and Hoyt, frat brothers, witnessed a young coed sharing her sexual expertise with a visiting California governor. Hoyt thinks it’s their ticket to success, Vance is downright scared of retribution if they start jawing about the incident. Adam Gellin, senior, cash strapped, writing for the school newspaper, should have been named editor but is too busy tutoring JoJo Johanssen and is tired of filling in as JoJo’s brain. Adam just might have stumbled on the governor and the coed story. The settings, the characters, the drive of each one that springs forth several subplots possess such adept balancing of personalities and events that Charlotte Simmons is delightfully irresistible. Two modern classics came to mind while reading I Am Charlotte Simmonsand each one was a hallmark for the generation in which it was written. One is Herman Wouk’s Marjorie Morningstar and the other is James A. Michener’s The Drifters. Charlotte Simmons keeps their generational dialogue alive by mirroring it for the present.

Tom Wolfe’s fiction is such colorful quicksand that you don't just read him. You allow his stories to overwhelm you. I Am Charlotte Simmonsis a big book as well as being an epic on a small canvas. He places university life under a microscope and allows us to watch as Charlotte, Jojo, Vernon, Hoyt, Adam and Vance react to the social politics within the academic volcano. Futures are made, pasts are broken, presents are squandered and each character grows before your eyes. Tom Wolfe crafts suspenseful turns out of everyday events as each of these characters collide unexpectedly in academic, sports and social competition. Take Charlotte Simmons home with you. She has a lot to say.