Book Shelf: Mysteries
By MARGO KAUFMAN, Special to The Times
Sunday, May 17, 1998Anyone harboring regrets about not getting into Harvard will feel better after reading "The Student Body" (Villard Books). The slick page turner was written by "Jane Harvard," a pseudonym for four Harvard graduates who collaborated on the book to pay off their student loans. Set on the most prestigious campus in the nation, the intricate and in-your-face smart plot revolves around junior Toni Isaacs, a reporter for the Crimson, who receives a tip that her fellow students are working as high-priced hookers.
Aided by suite-mate Chelo, the only student in her East Los Angeles high school to ever be admitted to you-know-where, Toni endangers her academic career to dig up the dirt. The portrait of campus life rings true, so true that some parents may wonder just what they're getting for their five-figure tuition checks.
None of the aggressively multicultural, "hipper than thou residents of Adams House" seems to study (though a campus prostitute carries a copy of "The Peloponnesian Wars" when meeting her john), and between the sleazy dean, the smarmy professors and the less-than-honorable folks running the school's endowment, it's a wonder anyone gets educated.
Perhaps because the book was written as a collective effort, it lacks the passion of an academic thriller such as Donna Tartts' "The Secret History," and the sex scenes are lackluster. I'd give it a B-plus.
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