Light read, fairly well written. ( )

I love Little Children and Abstinence Teacher but I am afraid this is not a great book. I found it difficult suspend disbelief and ultimately I didnt like the main character. The other characters are not drawn out enough to make them clear and relatable and I kept getting confused about who was who. Like other people have said I loved it at the start but it went down hill. Shame, but I still like his other books. ( )

I had a mixed experience reading Joe College.

At first I tore into it - I loved it - I felt like the pages were just flying - but then all of a sudden it slowed. I found myself choosing to do other things rather than reading more.

I did finally push through and I liked it just fine. I am a fan of Tom Perrotta's. This is the 3rd book of his that I have read in about a year. I love his casual smart style. I think his characters are really well formed. The people and conversations smack with realism.

I think I finally did put my finger on what slowed this down for me. It was the whole father/lunchtruck/mafia subplot. I found it depressing, cringeworthy and distracting from the other plot lines I was really enjoying.

Anyway - I still liked this book overall - I would recommend it to someone who already likes Perrotta - but I dont think it's the best one of his to start with if you haven't read him before. ( )

I loved the films Election and Little Children, which were made by different people but both adaptations of books by Tom Perrotta. I figured if both movies turned out that well, the source material must be really good. So I read his book The Abstinence Teacher and loved that too. As a result I went into Joe College with high expectations, and I ended up a bit disappointed. ( )

Danny. He's a student at Yale. His parents are hard-working, but with minimal means. He has girlfriend troubles. Its New Jersey, 1982. So, we've got coming of age issues, class issues, the classic struggle to fit in. I was not sure that this would be the right backdrop for good comedy.

Early on there was an essay on highlighters that had me practically crying I was laughing so hard. Perrotta's choice of language was priceless and superb. But that was the last time I laughed. I think the characters - Danny, his college friends, his parents, the NJ crowd - were all grounded solidly in the times. They were a little bit of cariacatures, but not over the top. So, maybe that explains why I didn't think they were funny. Even the Lunch Monsters - the competing lunch trucks run by the mob - were not funny. How Danny hapelessly runs amok of them. Not realistic and not funny. The things that seemed the most real, were a little bit sad. If I hadn't been feeling a bit nostalgic, I would not have continued.

I still gave it 3 stars. It was easy to read, mildly interesting, and a reasonable representation of the time and place. It was not compelling or funny. ( )