Katie's Book Pass-along: Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Perhaps it's all of the rain or the fact that my DVR has gone idle for the summer, but I've been a reading machine! Here's the next book for the pass-along: Admission by Jean Hanf Korelitz. Korelitz has written three other novels (Sabbathday River, A Jury of Her Peers, and The White Rose), none of which I've read.

Here's the synopsis:
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.

See, "Admission," my sister would tell you, is a "multiple meaning word." Here it refers to the process of letting students in to an elite university (the behind-the-scenes look at this process is interesting and frightening), and it also refers to process of Portia coming to terms with her own secrets (ooh, intriguing!).

Each chapter begins with a snippet of a college application essay, and these became my favorite part of the book. It is a work of fiction, but Korelitz, herself, worked as an admissions officer for Princeton, so I think there is definitely a lot of truth here. The book is compelling and well-written. I think you'll like it.

Want to read Admission? Just write a comment on this post before Friday night. I'll pick a winner on Saturday morning, and send the book on its way. All I ask is that when you're finished you pass the book along to another reader of your choosing.