Customer Reviews

How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

How I Paid For College is a funny and sweet coming of age novel--with lots of sex, for a change. Ed, the narrator-protagonist, is about to enter his senior year in high school and his main goal in life is to go to Julliard, but his business-oriented dad decides that Julliard won't get him anywhere in life, so he won't pay for it. Ed and his amusing friends set off on a quest to come up with the cash to pay for college. It's 1984, so college isn't quite the expensive proposition we now know it to be, but Ed still has got to come up with quite a chunk of change. The novel isn't really about with getting money for college, it is really about getting the courage to see who you truly are. Ed realizes his own sexuality, as do most of his friends. They also become comfortable in their roles in high school (as "Play People") and by the end of the novel are pretty well-adjusted 18-year olds. This is a charming novel for many reasons. Ed is a lovable narrator and his sarcastic, cynical and hilarious look at the New Jersey suburbs in the early 80s is priceless and hilarious. This novel will make you laugh out loud and will always keep you smiling. Enjoy.

Being of reasonably sound mind and currently in my fourth year of college I rarely find the time to sit down and indulge in the finer things in life. You should know I mean a book that isn't on a professor's reading list. This book in particular was handed to me by a friend and I read the entire novel in one sitting on a Saturday. I did lunch sat down and couldn't put it down until it was time for a smashingly late dinner.

This book almost made me miss high school which is saying something considering I've long since put those four years away on the glory days shelf and lived in the here and very now. The way Acito mixes his elements of humor, drama, classic high school angst and hijinks... this is one of the best books I've read all year. There were times I was laughing so hard I was crying and my friend would stop to ask which part I was on and giggle along with me, reminiscing about when they had read it too.

I've already thrust the title on numerous people, indicating that it was a must read and if you're even so much as considering it, then yes! Buy this book, you will not regret it!

-Julie, UGA - History Major

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. I can't even count how many times I laughed out loud. This novel is not for the prudish or for young children. Everyone else who likes to laugh: Read it immediately.

It features a fast-paced plot and wonderfully interesting characters. The main character is a bisexual high school senior who loves to act and hates to work. His friends are a drama geek/football player, a guy who loves to break the law, and a beautiful, sweet girl who loves sex. And then there is the evil stepmonster, the handicapped gay drama teacher, Frank Sinatra's minions, and a bunch of other fun folks who make this book a lively, laugh-out-loud success.

It is unfortunate that this book was allowed to be sold to the public without warnings.
The first should concern shockable homophobics with heart disorders. They could be suckered into reading this by the way it starts out as an interesting coming of age romance - "Catcher in the Rye" (to which deliberate reference in made) set in suburban New Jersey in the 1980's with a few innocuous ethnic jibes ("I felt at home there. Jews are like Italians only smarter") and social satiric jabs ("You can tell that sophisticated people live here because all their photographs are black and white."). Then they may need advanced cardiac life support soon after page 99 (where the sex is more or less hetero). A wise precaution might be to test them out with small doses of Augusten Burroughs and Sedaris.
A second warning is for insomniacs like me who read themselves to sleep rather than take Ambien. I finished it at three this morning. Luckily it's Sunday.
The third caveat is about reading it in any place where you might look odd laughing aloud. There's a high laugh aloud risk factor. Maybe the PATH from Christopher Street to Hoboken would be safe because everybody else will be reading it.

What a joyful and hilarious romp this book is! Reading it is like watching a zany, screwball comedy- there were some bits that had me laughing so hard I had to take a moment and just revel in the wackiness. I mean, try to keep a straight face when the hero's evil Teutonic stepmonster confronts him on his girlfriend's front porch with charges of stealing. Or while the Creative Vandalism team is wreaking havoc on the neighborhood.

The most gratifying quality of `How I Paid for College' isn't, however, the book's comedy but its great sense of the general goodness of mankind. Marc Acito loves and respects his characters very much, even when they are in trouble, and the reader finishes the book with the sense of high good humor usually reserved for the best kind of `feel good' movie. In fact, in order to accurately describe the book to friends, and you will find yourself talking about it with your friends, it's easiest to rely on theatrical or cinematic vocabulary. Part of the reason is the racing, hilarious quality of the story, but mostly it's because the story has a `here and now' quality to them. For example, the scene (see?) of the school's opening night of Godspell perfectly conveys the quiet, awesome roar you feel yourself part of when something really extraordinary is happening on stage or on the screen. Being able to make the reader a part of that is a gift. How I Paid For College is a superb coming-of-age story and it would make a great movie, but it's perfectly fine to read it for the belly laughs, too. In fact, I hope you do buy this madcap book. You're going to love it, and you're going to be glad you did.

Hmmmm... Despite the fact that this story follows a fellow through his senior year of high school, I'm not at all sure if this book is even meant for teens: at any rate, I would only recommend this one for older teens and adults, due to a fair amount of strong language and plenty of sexual situations. Oh, the sexuality is often written for comic effect and isn't terribly graphic or anything, but there is a fair amount of it! And quite frankly, a few of these scenes had me thinking "Ewwwwwww----gross!" Heh---without subjecting you to any details, I am quite certain I would never attempt one or two of these things myself---ugh.

The main character considers himself bisexual, but man---to me he reads as totally, totally gay; I didn't really buy into the whole subplot of him having a girlfriend for a portion of the story.

On the positive side, some of the family drama did draw me into the story on a visceral, emotional level. And the book was funny--- I suppose I enjoyed it enough that I'll go ahead and read the sequel which is titled Attack of the Theater People. Still, I would have to say that the novel was simply a bit too seedy for my taste; I wasn't really crazy about any of the characters, none of whom seemed particularly admirable. Plus, I'm not sure how true to life they were for people of a high school age; seemed more like college kids. For a taste of high school life in similarly-themed novel, I much preferred the very funny and warm-hearted A Really Nice Prom Mess.

I loved this book. It was incredibly funny and fast-paced. I think it would be especially great for Juniors and Seniors in high school, who will, no doubt, be going through the same sorts of things.

Ah, to be a teenager in the `80s. If you're Ed Zanni, you're confused about your sexuality, involved in the school play, and planning to go to Julliard for college. However, as his senior year of school starts, his wealthy father remarries a crazy Austrian and tells Ed that if he plans to go to school for drama, he won't be footing the bill. Ed isn't so ready for his musical theater dreams to be over. Enter in his crazy cast of friends: Paula (a Freshman at Julliard herself), Kelly (Ed's cheerleader girlfriend), Doug (his football player crush), Natie (a nerd with high aspirations) and Ziba(a Middle Eastern beauty) who are willing to help him do whatever it takes to get in to the school of his dreams. Besides being laugh-out-loud funny, the book takes on issues without making them the main storyline (Ed's relationship with his Dad, his sexuality). I would love to see what Ed's up to now. I want a sequel! :)

I'm surprised to see such high ratings for this book, but I have to chalk it up once again to the trend of Amazon reviewers to review things they like. For whatever reason, I've often felt Amazon ratings to be overinflated - but this is a pan of Marc Acito's book, not Amazon reviews.

Apart from the graphic sex scenes, this book could be aimed at a youth audience. It's level seems about equal to that of "An Abundance of Katherines," which I began reading on accident because it wasn't clearly marked as youth lit. The characters are high schoolers, and it seems to me that high school readers would feel more in tune with this book's predominant moods of sarcasm, horniness, and low-stakes shenanigans.

Style wise, it's exhaustingly sardonic, punctuated by groaners, and not even original ones. Acito refers to the film Yentl, for example, as "Tootsie on the Roof," which is not an original line. Acito seems to take his mid-80s setting as an excuse to fall back quite often onto tired turns of phrase.

I would have dropped the book after chapter 3, but decided to read reviews to see if I was missing something or if there was some aspect that would redeeem the triteness of this book. Even major reviewers credited the book as worthwhile, though not quite saying why as if homosexual themes alone make it pan proof. Living as I do in culture where homosexuality is so commonplace and accepted that it does not constitute its own value, I have to disagree.

Sophomoric - that sums up me feeling toward this book. Where the plot isn't overly convenient, it's clumsy. In addition, I struggle to find anything likable about the characters. The sex scenes are titillating, and maybe that's a clue to who the audience is.

How I Paid for College is an absolutely riveting, hilarious and brilliant read. I felt that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, but then immediately would force myself to slow down -- not wanting to end my immersion in the world of Mark Acito's characters.

No matter what your age, you will instantly relate to the story of an adolescent's struggle for his own identity in a world that sometimes outwardly and unashamedly conspires to keep him from reaching his dreams. Mark Acito writes with a passion, and I read How I Paid for College in the same spirit.

If you have been in search of a dynamic novel that will stay with you for years to come, and would like to read something so hilarious and touching that you will find yourself constantly quoting to friends as you read -- you absolutely must read Mark Acito's book.

Brilliant!