Sign Up & Save!
|
|
Sign up to receive weekly sales e-mails!
| |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | Crafts & Hobbies | Home » » » Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever | | | | | | | Description: | | Percentile is destiny in America.”
So says Walter Kirn, a peerless observer and interpreter of American life, in this whip-smart memoir of his own long strange trip through American education. Working his way up the ladder of standardized tests, extracurricular activities, and class rankings, Kirn launched himself eastward from his rural Minnesota hometown to the ivy-covered campus of Princeton University. There he found himself not in a temple of higher learning so much as an arena for gamesmanship, snobbery, social climbing, ass-kissing, and recreational drug use, where the point of literature classes was to mirror the instructor's critical theories and actual reading of the books under consideration was optional. Just on the other side of the “bell curve's leading edge” loomed a complete psychic collapse.
LOST IN THE MERITOCRACY reckons up the costs of a system where the point is simply to keep accumulating points and never to look back—or within. It's a remarkable book that suggests the first step toward intellectual fulfillment is getting off the treadmill that is the American meritocracy. Every American who has spent years of his or her life there will experience many shocks of recognition while reading Walter Kirn’s sharp, rueful, and often funny book—and likely a sense of liberation at its end. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780385521284
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Walter Kirn | | Hardcover:
| 224 pages | | Publisher:
| Doubleday | | Publication Date:
| May 19, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0385521286 | | Package Length:
| 8.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.7 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 32 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Something of a mess (the book and its lead character)Mar 03, 2010
Most of this book is about the author's life at Princeton University. More specifically, his misadventures (drugs and other deviant activities). From this reading you would hardly know that he attended classes. The author had his reasons for presenting this stilted view of undergrad life, but one consequence is that his book sems disjointed. Apparently he thinks that he was mis-cast as a Princeton student, and wants us to see his experiences there as saying something meaningful about the institution, or about culture at an elite academic institution, or ... Whatever! Not the innocent kid from Minnesota that he suggests, by his own admission he started gaming the educational system way back, grade school and onward. Perhaps the shock was that at Princeton it was a much harder game (and not just intellectual/academic), with lots of other skilled (and more socially and economically privileged) players.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 ivy league disappointsFeb 28, 2010
A few years ago, I was asked to speak at an Ivy League school about some work that I had done with a nonprofit. The work I had done was hard, unrewarded, and I thought unnoticed. I was flattered to be asked to speak to the "best and brightest". I went to the event and because of my youthful looks was somehow routed into the area where student volunteers were working. I sat at the side for about an hour and observed the student volunteers fighting over who would get to meet with the famous people, refuse to assist with the less important speakers, absolutely refuse to put out the chairs and set up tables for the event as it was beneath them, and patronize the only minority students in the room. This was not a small assembly of students, but up to 50 that I observed behaving like this. Needless to say, Kirn's book reads very true to me. The students I observed were shallow, self absorbed, and selfish. My own children are now in college and I have discouraged them from seeking out an Ivy league school. I believe that schools like Princeton debase young people's character rather than bring out what is best in them. When I see all the havoc that these kinds of people have brought to our world, I am just sad. Surely, we can do better than this.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Oh, boo-hoo, WalterFeb 15, 2010
For a guy, one of whose novels was just made into a top new movie, Kirn sure seems to be wallowing in this collegiate memoir of how he was a misfit at Princeton. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him? Take it as some sort of lesson to be avoided? The point of this little, and I do mean little, memoir is somewhat elusive. Kirn would have you think he didn't fit at elite Princeton, even though he came from quite a privileged background, which he tries to disguise as something less. His father was a lawyer for 3M Corp, who arranged a summer in Europe for poor Walt while at Princeton. He could well afford an Ivy League education, even if Walt balked at paying his $600 share for some dorm room furniture bought by wealthier roommates. He had plenty of money for drugs, trips to NYC and living off campus in a vegetarian house. I went to an elite school, too, where everyone seemed richer. So what? He doesn't seem to have emerged at 50-something as scarred for life by the horrible experience of attending one of the top schools in the world. Go back to the novels, Walt. Hey, Princeton turned you into a pretty good writer. I'll bet you'll end up donating $1 mill to the alumni fund, after all.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
a bizarre life, revisitedJan 12, 2010
Like other readers, I was intrigued by the title of this book. However, neither the title nor the subtitle communicates what this book is about: a very successful novelist reminisces about educational experiences that took place more than 25 years ago.
As others have noted, it's not clear why Kirn wrote this book. It's almost a case study of a specific educational trajectory. A smart young man learns how to play the education game early on, then finds himself in way over his head at an Ivy League university. Much of these experiences seem to take place in a drug induced haze, punctuated by sexual encounters that range from frustrating to bizarre.
We can evaluate the book as a memoir. Kirn's story is not especially unique. If he hadn't written a handful of best sellers, I wonder if he would have found an audience. Worse, there's no context to read the book and no theme. It's hard to argue that the system is broken when you're sabotaging your own success with drugs and other escapist behavior. It's even hard to argue about the system, which must have changed in twenty-five years.
I kept wondering why Kirn didn't have a confidante during his Princeton years. Did he even consider the school's counseling service? An adult with any kind of business sense would have seen through his roommates' ploy, as they purchased furniture without consulting him and then sent him a bill. I'm not a lawyer but I suspect they had no basis to ask him for money; their action was more like extortion. Princeton's response to Kirn's acting out may seem benevolent but I wonder why nobody talked to him about what happened.
The roommates sound depressingly real. Crazy roommates are a fact of college life, especially in some of the more elite universities. A badly assigned roommate can impact a student's success and happiness.
Looking at the book as a case study of a smart but misguided young person, I would say Kirn's experience reinforces a belief I've held for a long time. Success depends on a combination of recognizing what environment will support you, even if it's not the most famous or elite. Over and over I've seen people turn down top schools and famous companies to get to places where their own unique styles and talents can flourish.
A little luck doesn't hurt either. It seems odd that Kirn never encounters a helpful, supportive person or catches a break. If he'd chosen a different major or been assigned a different place to live, I wonder what might have happened. Of course, it's possible that opportunities did present themselves while he was too inwardly focused to notice.
Incidentally, I was amused by Kirn's dialogue with his psychiatrist on pages 15-16. Kirn, now in his thirties, gets ready to quit therapy. In what seems to be a desperate act to hold on to his patient, the psychiatrist asks him to consider just one more thing.
First, the shrink suggests, Kirn might have idolized his father but was abandoned. No thanks, Kirn says, looking at his watch.
But surely, the therapist suggests, "you idolized someone once...but then he abandoned you or you felt he did."
Kirn immediately connects, remembering the man he called "Uncle Admiral."
I can't help wondering what would happen if Kirn said "No." Just about everyone has looked up to someone who either left, was left behind and/or turned out to have feet of clay. Maybe I've been in marketing too long, but I can't help noticing that psychiatrist seems to be a very good salesman. If Kirn stuck around for more therapy, I hope he got his money's worth.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Thanks for sharingJan 08, 2010
If drug abuse and being molested by one's sixth-grade teacher are teachable moments, I don't think I'd like to be taught. Fortunately there is some passable existential musing, if you can manage to take Kirn seriously.
| | |
|
