Sophie Gee

Welcome to the world of Laura Ashley dresses, L.L.

Bean canvas tote bags with initials monogrammed on them, goldfish crackers for dinner, classic rock boomboxes, pink shorts, and bow ties with whales on them.

As in the other three school stories that we've covered so far in this series, the ultra elite East Coast boarding school of Sittenfeld's 2005 novel, PrEP, is a microcosm of the nation at large, or at least of a decent slice of it.

In this case, we're looking at the class conscious world of East Coast America and the boarding schools that are raising up the future students of Harvard, Yale, Princeton and their peer institutions, as we say over here.

Sidenfeld is taking the milieu, the social milieu of The Great Gatsby.

She's moving it half a century onward from Fitzgerald's masterpiece.

And she's made the characters 10 years younger.

We're basically looking at Daisy and Tom Buchanan and Nick Carraway when they were still in high school, wondering whether they should be using a different brand of deodorant or who will pick up the tab if they call a taxi at the end of the night.

were among old money, aspirational new wealth and careless people in a fictional East Coast boarding school called Alt.

But Alt is instantly recognisable to those in the know as the real-life Massachusetts boarding school Groton, where Curtis Sittenfeld herself went in the late 80s and 90s.

including deciding what the nature of the face-off will be.

Will it be a lacrosse match or a game of rugby, Jonty?

Will it be wrestling or ice hockey?

Yeah, exactly.

You think it wasn't my best work?

What would you give me, Jenny?

Would you give me a D?

I'll take it.

What you were up against.

We've had enough.