Customer Reviews

Schooled

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Schooled is another mis-adventure with the uber-rich in the upper east side of New York. Reading a lot like The Nanny Diaries: A Novel meets The Devil Wears Prada, Schooled follows the first year of a new private school teacher as she becomes indoctrinated into the world of the obscenely rich and influential. Anisha Lakhani writing is extremely readable and her main character, Anna Taggert, is very likable. Even when Anna missteps you root for her.

Unfortunately Anna's character arch is extremely predictable and the ultimate climax of the book is fairly abrupt and not extremely climatic. What's missing from Schooled is any real depth, rather than digging deeper into the lives of Anna's students, Lakhani seems more interested in long descriptions of Anna's binge brand shopping and the Channel Bag or Prada Shoes she buys. Despite its flaws Schooled still delivers on some level, I found myself interested in following Anna's journey, even though I knew pretty well where it would turn out.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Schooled is that it has the nugget of a gem of a really good book, Lakhani has a great set-up, really likable characters and an engaging writing styles, she just never digs deep enough to pull out its true potential. Still, if you're looking for a light summer read and were a huge fan of The Nanny Diaries: A Novel you could do much worse than Schooled.

I was in Anisha Lakhani's 7th grade English class several years ago; I was a nerdy, awkward bookworm who hung out with the other intellectual, uncool kids. We did our own homework, we were not all white, we certainly were not all wealthy, and we were basically ignored while Mrs. Lakhani chatted with the "A-Group" (we didn't call them popular, because no one really liked them) about clothes and makeup.

The portrayal of every child in this book (with the exception of one who is from Westchester) as a bratty, rich "cruiser" is offensive and smacks of hypocrisy. There definitely were a few bad eggs, the types who did have bar and bat mitzvahs at the Pierre, and it was at those parties that you could always spot Anisha Lakhani, hobnobbing with the parents she supposedly hates so much.

The fact that Mrs. Lakhani herself is one of the fashion obsessed social climbers she attempts to skewer in "Schooled" may be what keeps her protagonist, Anna Taggert, so one-dimensional and unsympathetic. She makes constant justifications for her own repellant behavior, but is judgmental of others. She claims to have been a good girl who "had never done a drug in my life" and knows nothing about fashion or labels, but recounts drunken nights as a freshman in Delta Gamma at Columbia. Which is about as believable as Miley Cyrus having been a relevant part of pop culture in the year 2005, when the book is set, and her only credits were two lines in Big Fish and one episode of her father's sitcom.

But over all, I found the quality of the writing to be the worst thing about this book -- yes, even worse than the cultural anachronisms, the lack of character exposition, and how downright obnoxious the thing is. I spent $23.95 on what reads like a first draft. Lakhani's style has been described a few times as "breezy". Well, OK, if breezy means that there are words missing from sentences, glaring grammar errors, and numerous typos littering the pages. The most descriptive words she uses are brand names, which results in sentences about as sophisticated as "The Chanel Cat sat on the Marni Mat". I now have serious retrospective concerns about the quality of my middle school education.

I can't recommend a novel that even a copy editor couldn't bring him- or herself to read. "Schooled" is not funny, it's not well-written, and the only insight it offers is a peek into the mind of a shallow, and apparently scheming, socialite; it'll probably be a bestseller.

This book is truly appalling. I don't so much want to review it as flunk it. This novel desperately needs way more Maxwell Perkins and way less Mickey Mouse, because its pop-culture hipness pretty much guarantees it a shorter shelf life than lettuce. I don't like doling out one-star reviews flippantly, but this book is so unsatisfying, so banal, that I only wish I could give it no stars.

Our heroine, Anna Taggart, whose life and appearance bear an uncanny resemblance to our author, decides to become a private school teacher out of good old-fashioned altruism. But like numerous doe-eyed teachers before her, she abruptly discovers that the hours are bad, the pay is a feeble joke, and the parents would be happy to crucify her. That is, until she discovers the money tree that is being a private tutor to the children of the obscenely rich.

This book takes a story that arguably deserves to be told, tries to put a "Sex and the City" veneer on it, gilds her narrative with a sort of dark humor, and puts it into a slickly arranged package. Which is nice, except the actual book reads like the author sent her first draft to the publisher with nary a proofread, and the publisher was too cheap to assign her a copy checker.

The narrative is drenched in adjectives and adverbs, a sure sign of an inexperienced writer. Moreover, she doesn't appear to trust us enough to give us a measured narrator with sufficient perspective on her subject. Witness this quote from page 4: "The look on my father's face was clear: I had gone too far." But what was that look? Pinched lips, melodramatic eye rolls, stony silence? I don't know. We the audience can forgive occasional lapses like this, but when they happen over and over and over again, that's a sign that the author herself hasn't thought the details of her story through. And if she hasn't, why should we?

Plainly the book wants to jump into the chick-lit tradition. But isn't it missing a few of the usual elements of that genre? The narrator's friendships with other women can charitably be described as fleeting, and romance isn't even mentioned as a possible subplot until page 273. Chick-lit usually centers on themes of human relationship, but Anna Taggart appears unable to sustain any kind of relationship with anyone or anything other than her own internal angst.

In keeping with the chick-lit theme, the book comes with slug lines comparing it to "The Nanny Diaries" and "The Devil Wears Prada." Both of those books were quickly adapted into big-studio movies. This book was published by Hyperion, which is a subsidiary of Disney. I have a dreadful suspicion that the film version of this book is already in pre-production. As my honey said when I mentioned my fear that the Mouse was trying to fast-track a future movie, "Does their capacity to suck know no bounds?"

But that film seems to be the author's primary goal. Though the story is about an English teacher, she only ever mentions four books; most of the pop-culture references are to movies and TV shows. Our narrator doesn't describe what the characters look like, she mentions the actors they resemble. Anna herself is said to look like Jessica Alba, while other characters are the spitting image of Cindy Crawford, Pierce Brosnan, Ugly Betty, Christie Brinkley, and Santa Claus. The author isn't describing characters, she's pre-casting roles.

And let's be honest, pop-culture references date badly anyway. I can't name the last time I saw Cindy Crawford in the media; she could be wrinkled and grey by now. The author name-drops investment bank Bear Stearnes, which folded catastrophically, and the TV show "The O.C.," which was cancelled ignominiously. A party attracts the luminous presence of Kanye West and Ashlee Simpson, who were hot when the book was being written but currently dwell on the cusp of irrelevance. These, too, are a lousy shorthand so the author doesn't have to take responsibility for communicating her narrative to her own audience, and it's both insulting and lazy.

Then there are the references to New York hotspots I couldn't find on a map, movies and TV shows I've never seen, and celebrities I couldn't pick out of a lineup. If you don't live in front of your TV, then you don't so much read this book as decipher it. I know somebody scrupulously up-to-the-minute on pop culture would get what was being sold, but I resent authors who think audiences read with their Captain MidNite Secret Decoder Rings there at hand.

Who is that audience, anyway? Anybody likely to recognize this many frankly dumb movies and TV shows probably doesn't read for fun. I simply get no sense from this novel who or what is being courted, or why.

And finally there was the copy editing, which was dreadful. I realize my Advance Reading Copy may not be thoroughly edited yet, but since the publisher sends these things to potential bulk buyers, you'd think they would want to make a good impression. Instead we're shown a book that looks like it was formatted by one of the middle-school characters. The text frequently leaves words out the sentences; it's chock full of misplaced apostrophe's; and many sentences just drop key pieces of punctuation

All in all, this book really reminds me of the product of a high-school-aged apprentice writer. A really enthusiastic reader could savvy this entire novel in one rainy Saturday, but I honestly can't imagine why. I like writers, I believe in them, and I want to see them succeed. But this book is a failed effort. I cannot recommend it to anybody.

Anna Taggert is a recent Ivy League graduate with a dream. She wants to be an awesome teacher, and she seems on track for this dream when she joins the staff of Langdon Hall, a exclusive private school in Manhattan, as an English teacher. There are some pitfalls, namely her tiny paycheck and run-down fifth-floor apartment. She's determined to instill English literature into her students' heads in creative ways, but her determination ebbs away as she realizes that neither the parents nor the school appreciate her efforts. Then she discovers tutoring - a fast way to make a ton of money, and she spirals down from eager graduate to shopping-obsessed tutor who has no time for actual teaching.

A lot of other readers enjoyed this book, so I was expecting to enjoy it too. I had an idea that it would be fun and sassy, chick lit with a brain. Well, not really. It was fun at times, but Anna whines about her life a lot in the beginning - and never stops whining even when she's making big bucks doing rich kids' homework for them instead of creating lesson plans for her students. She's never satisfied either, which is what bothered me. She goes on to take more tutoring clients so she can afford more Chanel bags and live in a ritzy apartment building with a doorman. She got corrupted too easily, in my opinion. I've never been offered so much money, but I can guarantee I wouldn't spend it on a $1400 handbag. As a result, the name-dropping was more than I'd have preferred.

If this is real life in elite Manhattan, however, it is quite surprising. I'd never imagined that kids could get out of doing any work whatsoever in school just because their parents were rich. I've never read any of the other books that cover this type of lifestyle, (one of which is apparently The Devil Wears Prada), so I had little idea that this kind of lifestyle existed. I don't think I want it, and perhaps that's why I didn't enjoy this book. I couldn't understand Anna's motivations. I'm happy with my mountain of $1 used books and my $10 no-name handbag. I don't enjoy or understand this world that Anna wants to live in. Sometimes the book is fun, though - I liked Anna's lessons, her interactions with the other teachers and her students, and the ending - just didn't get the rest.

I have to be totally honest and say I couldn't finish the book at all. The other reviewers who were brave enough to venture through the entire story & gave it a poor rating had it absolutely right - It was a very far cry from a great read. I was immediately turned off with the crude language - it didn't seem to fit the characters. Enter the very predictable life of a character that will lull you to complete boredom until you drop to sleep with her endless shopping, chattering, thinking, etc. Drink a vast amount of lattes before opening this book. With luck, you just might stay awake long enough to finish it. Better yet, use it as a cure for insomnia!

"Schooled" channels The Nanny Diaries to create a novel that's half brand-conscious chick lit, half expose of the corrupted tutor culture that flourishes on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Author Anisha Lakhani taught English at Dalton, so she has the inside scoop on life inside an elite prep school. "Schooled" follows idealistic Columbia grad Anna Taggart as she comes to grip with the fact that the "progressive education" she is expected to provide is ruled by money, school politics, and parents' convenience, rather than any pursuit of knowledge. Anna learns how to go along to get along, but will she still be able to each anything in the process?

Beyond the school's walls, teachers from one school are paid hundreds of dollars an hour to do the homework and report-writing for students from another school. This blatant cheating under the guise of "tutoring" is tolerated by everyone because it keeps up a facade that gets the kids into Ivy League colleges.

Anna is sucked into this scheme and experiences the predictable highs and lows of selling out for the shallow joys of a really great Coach bag and becoming a Bergdorf Blonde.

I found "Schooled" to be satirical fluff (notwithstanding the expose angle) that ultimately did manage to hook me. Lakhani is at her best when she details the excesses of the Upper East Side. Take the "faux mitzvah" that a Korean-American girl's therapist prescribes so that she won't aggravate her "complex" by feeling left out. The Willy-Wonka themed event is staged complete with Oompa Loompas, sexually-charged "motivational dancers," a "Nobu stall next to Build-a-Bear," and a bevy of hot-this-minute celebs.

I was annoyed by Anna's unbelievable naivete. How could she attend Columbia and have no clue about spoiled private-school kids and their parents? When a fellow faculty member says that another teacher "bats both ways," Anna thinks, "I was shocked. I knew that phrase! She was bisexual!" Actually, he meant that she was a high-priced tutor on the side, but it's hard to imagine Anna being so amazed by the original implication.

Seeing the babe in the woods lose her innocence is of course part of the fun, but I enjoyed getting to know the already-corrupted Randi Abrahams, who could let loose and give voice to Lakhani's wicked side.

As a former private school teacher myself I recognize some of the dynamics in "Schooled," but I have never met any parents as abominable as these. They may exist, but let's keep in perspective that they are an exotic species many of us will never encounter in real life.

If you are intrigued by "Schooled" but are looking for something more literary, less Bridget Jones's Diary, I would recommend Special Topics in Calamity Physics and All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.

I received this book and started to read it immediately. I had not read the Nanny Chronicles so can't really compare.

As the synopsis describes, this is the story of a fresh graduate from Columbia (just like the author) who went against conventional wisdom (just like the author) to become an English teacher (just like the author) at a snooty private school in Manhattan (just like the author).

I like the author's style of writing for the most part -- she has an easy-going conversational style that is humorous, sarcastic and biting (a lot like me :-) However, I found all of her references to "elite" brand names pretty annoying after awhile. It was like she was trying very hard to wedge in every designer brand known to man. I read somewhere that some authors actually get paid to integrate brands into their work and I almost wonder if that was what was going on here.

The book was interesting for the first 100 pages or so but it got pretty boring pretty quick. The book that I thought of as a comparison was "I am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe -- only this is about a training ground for the Ivy Leagues as opposed to about an Ivy League. Also, this is told from the perspective of the teacher rather than a student.

However, unlike Charlotte Simmons -- who I could find myself relating too even though I'm a frumpy 40-something mom -- there wasn't a single character in this book that I could really like. Even the main character seemed like a self-impressed snob. All of the characters were too "over the top" that it was hard to believe any of it could be remotely accurate. I know this is fiction but no group of people can be *THAT* evil and shallow.

The ending was predictable and self-congratulatory. If you want to read about hip pop culture, I think that "I am Charlotte Simmons" is a much better read. It has more plot and character development and there are twists and turns that make you want to keep reading. With this book -- you just want to skip to the end and see how it all winds up and you wind up hoping that pretty much everyone will self-destruct.

Naive young teacher swimming in Manhattan's shark infested waters? How will she survive!

Unless you have never read any books or seen any TV shows (ie. Gossip Girl, CSI: NY, Law & Order, etc.) that gives us a glimpse into New York's elite; this is hardly the "dazzling expose" the book claims to be.

Anna is a likable enough main character (albeit a tad boring). But seemed a bit unrealistic as an Ivy League graduate. I mean, she never saw this at her University? The book IS entertaining and a fine enough read, but I couldn't give it full marks for its predictability, amateurish writing style (too much dialogue, as well as overuse of descriptive words and thesaurus words) and simplicity.

The other reviewers who gave Schooled one or two stars have pretty much already said it all so I'll keep it brief. I have to admit I read the entire book in two sittings, but only because it is such a ridiculously easy read. And by "easy" I don't mean it's so enjoyable it's hard to put down. I mean its writing is extremely novice. It seems the author was more concerned with showing off her knowledge of top brand names than with thoroughly editing a meaningful story or developing characters that readers will give a darn about. If you're looking for a fast read to occupy some time on the beach, go ahead and pick this up. If you're looking for something to stir emotions or give you a new prospective on life, pass this one up. It's an insulting attempt at chick-lit if you ask me.

This book was such a guilty pleasure, as I am a teacher and tutor. This book, about a new teacher in a Manhattan private school, gives us a glimpse at that competitive, cut-throat environment. To keep up with her own students, the main character must tutor from the second she's out of school to the second she goes to bed. She's asked to read their books, write their papers, meet their mommies for coffee and lunch...

I cannot say that everyone will adore this book, but for me - it was a trashy summer read that focused on the educational world. I loved it!