Prep by Curtis SittenfeldRandom House, 2005

I read this book quickly, both because it was pleasing and because it made me a little anxious: knowing that something would go wrong, feeling, along with the narrator, the potential for embarrassment around every corner. As much as the phrase “in this moment” (or “in that moment”) is used (and it’s used a lot), Lee’s never really in any moment: and maybe that’s precisely why it’s a phrase she keeps coming back to. Lee’s so self-conscious that every moment has a meta-narrative, which can be tiresome. But of course, it’s also that same awareness, turned outward, that makes for an interesting story: a narrator who’s not omniscient, but who notices details, is aware of how people act and (sometimes) why.