The Ivy: Yet Another Harvard Novel

Bored? Not that creative? Simply out of other ideas?

Fear not, for you, too, can write a Harvard novel!

Here’s the recipe: in an environment that’s more of a pressure cooker than a melting pot, mix together a pinch of class war, a handful of post-high school hormones, and the uncooked cutlets of an existential quest on the part of an undeveloped protagonist. If you can find them, maybe throw in some alluring allusions to the names of real famous people, but, if not, no worries. Just go ahead and dump the whole thing on a plate, and dish it up with gusto. You might just have yourself a bestseller.

Given the preponderance in recent years of the Harvard tell-all—Keith A. Gessen’s '97 "All the Sad Young Literary Men," Nick McDonnell’s '06-'07 "An Expensive Education," Ross G. Douthat’s '02 (non-fictional) "Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class," to name a few—it should come as no surprise that another of these masterpieces is about to hit the shelves. And "The Ivy," by Lauren E. Kunze '08 and Rina A. Onur '08, will be in good company with the other titles on the growing list of Harvard books written about Harvard by graduates of Harvard, all for the purpose of exploring (exploiting?) what Harvard life is actually like up at Harvard. Harvard Harvard Harvard.

Kunze and Onur, former roommates at—you guessed it—have written a book about freshman year at, well, you guessed it again. Specifically about the sentimental education an innocent California girl receives as she wades her way through the decidedly unfriendly waters of the American aristocracy and the upwardly mobile. It’s due out Aug. 31 and—this just in—is reported to feature yet another innocent outsider come to Cambridge seeking an education and who becomes a jaded, somewhat disillusioned twenty-something, sort of cynical but educated indeed.

(Sort of, in a weird way, like the readers who buy these books only to discover what they’re actually like inside).

Photo courtesy of Daderot/Wikimedia Commons.