Joe College

by Tom Perrotta

For many college students, spring break means fun and sun in Florida. For Danny, a Yale junior, it means two weeks behind the wheel of the "Roach Coach," his father's lunch truck, which plies the parking lots of office parks in central New Jersey.

But Danny can use the time behind the coffee urn to try to make sense of a love life that's gotten a little complicated. There's loyal and patient hometown honey Cindy and her recently dropped bombshell to contend with, and there's also lissome Polly back in New Haven--with her shifting moods, perfect thrift store dresses, and inconvenient liaison with a dashing professor. If girl problems aren't enough, there's the constant menace of the Lunch Monsters, a group of thugs who think Danny has planted the Roach Coach in their territory.

Joe College is Tom Perrotta's warmest and funniest fiction yet, a comic journey into the dark side of love, higher education, and food service.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, Humor, Literary Fiction, College, Realistic Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Tom Perrotta is the bestselling author of nine works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning HBO series. His work has been translated into a multitude of languages. Perrotta grew up in New Jersey and lives outside of Boston.

Reviews

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess it takes considerable je ne sais quoi to read a writer’s work & enjoy it so much that simultaneously you want to read his other works, in my case “Little Children” (“Election” still being on my queue). Perrotta wrote that one after “Joe College” & it is as serious as this one is fun. Perrotta, I am sorry, surpasses Nick Hornby (his mediocre “Slam” is similar to this in the way our main man must conserve his manhood as soon as his biological function to create new life has been breached & adulthood prematurely-proclaimed). He even manages to surpass Pulitzer-darling Michael Chabon’s ever-popular “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh"! (And I’ll even forgive the fact that Danny “Joe College” is an impassioned Kerouac aficionado, too).

It's because “Little Children” exists, because its so very different from this one,--an enormous leap in maturity and craftsmanship--that I know the writer to be incredibly gifted. His views of returning to suburbia is simultaneously bleak AND robust with possibility. Nostalgia for the college experience is manifested, for sure. To me, B. E. Ellis' “The Rules of Attraction” is THE quintessential college novel, THE 80's TITAN, but this comes a very close second, with a wacky pathos all its own. A quaint smallness which is synonymous with the harrowing (though... necessary?) undergraduate student experience.

[Brian Levinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man, I wanted to like this book so much. I really did. As a working-class kid from North Jersey (OK, Suffern, NY, but that town is essentially in Jersey -- check Google Maps if you don't believe me) who attended Yale as a financial-aid student, I thought it would really speak to me. And it did -- for the first half. Perrotta brings a fresh, outsider's perspective to life at Yale, and his jokes at the expense of rich kids and Whiffenpoofs often had me laughing out loud.

However, the second half of the book, which is set in Jersey, sucks. Flat-out sucks. Like a goddamn vacuum cleaner. Like a black hole. It's bad. I was extremely, extremely let down. And yet, I went on to read several more of Perrotta's novels. Does this mean I'm an idiot? I'm not sure. "Little Children" was really good, though. Read that one instead.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perrotta does a really good job of making you like Danny, the main character. He's got a ton of flaws, and he makes a lot of mistakes, but you know deep down he's a good person. He knows when he's doing something wrong, but he's a young guy in college and does it anyway. I think most dudes can relate.

I've heard people say they don't like how he doesn't ever have to take responsibility for his actions. Fuck that. Smart kids get away with stuff. Some people are lucky and that's the way shit happens sometimes. I like how Perotta doesn't take the usual route with good overcoming evil over and over again.

Anyway, this is by no means a deep book. It's a simple, fun, coming-of-age story and I actually really enjoyed it. But I was also once a college kid who made some dumb decisions. Oh well.

[Syndi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not remembering anything about this book.

2 stars

[Allan Hough · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sucks. It's just good enough to keep you reading through to the end just to see what happens, but in my book, a book like that is worse that a fully bad book. At least with a fully bad book you can just put it down right away and forget about it.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sweet on Perrotta, so of course I loved it! Danny, the main character, is kind of a putz--but a loveable putz. Danny is obviously telling this story to the reader from some point in the future, and he could have made himself look better, but doesn't. Danny is unflinchingly honest about his selfish thoughts and actions, experienced during the all-consuming self-centeredness that is young adulthood/college. Perrotta does a great job of portraying the conflict between Danny's working class guilt and feelings of Ivy League entitlement. But ultimately, this book is a fun read! I read it at the beach! Actually, I read Little Children at the beach, too. Maybe Perrotta is the thinking person's beach read? (But don't we all like to think we're thinking people?;)

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Danny is a lucky guy; however, he is also a big weenie who has the gumption to fight the mobsters of his town, but he refuses to face his own demons. That is okay, though, because he does not have to face his demons. He does not have to own up to using his hometown girlfriend Cindy, he does not have to worry about his father's "Roach Coach" that is damaged, and he does not fight for his new interest Polly. Danny is just a static guy who observes life but never reaches deep in his soul to live the life he wants. I enjoyed this book (I read it on an airplane) because Danny is just someone I hope I never will be like.

[Kim Trusty · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know those guys who consider themselves to be "nice guys" but are actually d-bags? Well, Perotta's protagonist, Danny, is a "nice guy". A New Jersey native at Yale, Danny is caught between his working class beginnings and his posh (possible) future. You know what? I'm not writing another word about this book. Other than it's no "Election". Or "Little Children".

[Amar Pai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exceedingly minor memoir by some kid who went to Yale. He breaks up with his girlfriend, does the required reading, works at a lunch truck. Who cares.

[Elizabeth K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the same guy that wrote Little Children, and Election, which is probably more famous as a movie. Anyway, according to the author this novel is based on his own college experiences in the early 80s. We've got a kid from a working class background in New Jersey who is at Yale on a scholarship, casually dating a girl from back home whom he doesn't really want to be dating, and hopelessly pursing another classmate who really isn't available. Also, a cast of wacky roommates. I had mixed responses to this book -- on the plus side, it's very readable and the characters are extremely recognizable -- I think I went to college with most of them myself -- and I think the author was very successful with showing some of the tensions related to that kid who is breaking ground by going off to a prestigious college. However, parts of the book also got into that over-the-top satire that goes over my head, and I get the feeling that this is an example of that thing where otherwise thoughtful people look back at their own college experiences and they get so caught up in their own emotional memories that they can't quite take a step back and figure out which parts are more universally meaningful. I personally have some memories of college that I fondly remember as OMG that was SO funny and SO wild ... but then I also realize that I remember it that way because it happened to ME and other people don't have any reason to find it funny, wild, or even all that interesting. This book feels a little too autobiographical to me, like that guy at the party who is convinced his college stories are much more hilarious than yours, and completely misses the point that EVERYONE feels that way about stuff that happened to them.

Grade: B-
Recommended: To people who like higher ed in fiction, probably especially anyone who went to Yale or a similar college.

[Pat Herndon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preface: I love Tom Perrotta and have already read Little Children, The Abstinence Teacher and The Left Overs. Also...my high school boyfriend left me behind as I attended junior college so he could attend Yale. Yikes. Such a ring of familiarity to the plot (but I was NOT pregnant!). The years even match very closely. I am sure my old boyfriend's time at Yale over-lapped with Perrotta's. Thus, I was primed to enjoy this book. I probably would have given this book a 5-star rating, but the main character, Danny, does seem to have an unrealistically amazing talent for avoiding all consequences of his behavior. Heck, he evens gets away with drunk driving. I think if you read carefully, you can assume his luck ends in the moments just after the book ends....but you can't really be sure. After all, Danny's a smart guy who leads a charmed life. Still, this was an interesting, enjoyable book.

[Elizabeth Hesseltine · Rating 2 out of 5]

About 7 months in the life of a college student: he goes to parties, works in the school cafeteria, gets laid, and drinks beer. Not much changed between the first chapter and the last.

[Cheyne Nomura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Tom Perrotta, and I really enjoyed this book, which I was surprised to discover, since I thought I’d heard of all of his books. This is the most relatable one I’ve read, which has the hallmarks of most of his books: a male in crisis, sex, suburbia. Very easy, lighthearted read.

[Parksy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good snap shot of life in college... and life in the 80's. Excellent smooth and quick writing style, but nothing epic.

Amazon.com:
Having penned Election, a great novel of high-school manners, Tom Perrotta gives us Joe College, a great novel about college mores. In 1982, one Yale junior struggles with George Eliot, dorm blanket bingo, dining-hall dish-line duty, a massive crush on a girl in love with his favorite prof, daily cards and calls from a girl back home in New Jersey, and a lush profusion of authentically individual yet instantly recognizable undergrad eccentrics. After an evening of ritualistic bong hits, kimchee feasting, and sympathetic discussion of Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist who shot President McKinley, Danny thinks of his parents: "Was this what they scrimped and sacrificed for all those years? So their son could spend his Tuesday nights drinking beer, smoking dope, eating weird food, and learning to see the assassin's side of the story?"

Yup, that's the way it was, and Perrotta's immense strength is to give moment-by-moment immediacy to his hero's tortuous internal monologue. Instead of dumping his Jersey girl, Danny figures, "if I avoided her long enough, she'd get tired of waiting and supply my half of the conversation on her own, thereby sparing me the unpleasantness of having to be the bad guy." Yet he is also capable of heroism, as when he impulsively defies no-neck Mafiosi who menace his dad's "Roach Coach" lunch truck, which Danny drives to blue-collar work sites during school breaks. What gives the story structure is the collision in our hero's soul between his former life and the world of towers, moats, and upward mobility. He can't quite identify with his hometown reverence for Bruce Springsteen, but it rubs him wrong to see Springsteen LPs played "for the enjoyment of people who were going to end up being the bosses of the people the Boss was singing about. Nobody in Entryway C was born to run."

Election may have a better plot, but Joe College scoots along like a waterskeeter on a marvelous stream of consciousness. Tom Perrotta was born to write. --Tim Appelo

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the way Perrotta writes--his word choices, his analogies, his detailed descriptions, his perceptive wit. While I enjoyed reading Joe College, I felt that the main character Danny was unlikeable and selfish through parts of the book, especially when dealing with Cindy, his summer "townie" fling. Perhaps this was the intention, to paint Danny as book-smart but relationship-dumb, and despite his flaws, you can't really blame the kid for his missteps. Matt is Danny's co-worker at the college cafeteria and supposed friend, but I just couldn't understand why Danny kept the annoying guy around. I wanted to kick his ass a few times myself. But that's Perrotta's genius, he transports you to a world that is stunningly real--an authentic college experience--a young man navigating through a maze of schoolwork, strange Yale traditions, eccentric hangers-on, girls and running his father's food truck business [into the ground].(I had thought there would be more cooking in this book, but the food truck just dispenses factory-made sandwiches, coffee and candy bars. Not a foodie book.) The publisher gets bad points for multiple typos in the e-version for Nook--misspellings, solo parentheses, page numbers embedded in the text. No fault of Tom Perrotta, of course, just the publisher's lack of proofreading skills. These errors can be distracting, and it's not the first e-book to have this issue.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. At it's best, it's a story about growing up. The narrator's awareness starts as he recognizes the stereotypes around him, then he discovers that he has been living up to a shallow stereotype of himself as "Joe College." The tone reminds me of Huck Finn. The narrator has a very self-involved view, but despite that manages to reveal complex issues in the world around him. Young women involved with older men, pressures of parents on their children, difficulties of gender roles interfering with people expressing themselves or connecting with each other...

The bit with the Lunch Monsters was a hair extreme, but it provided a nice foil to Max's father's observation that the small business man is some kind of romantic hero of capitalism. Nothing is ever that simple, as the narrator shows us when his father has so many struggles with his own self-run business.

The ending was a bit disappointing. He seemed to have come full circle and started on another meaningless conquest. But then, maybe that was the point? I dunno.

This is a funny, clever book with incredibly articulate descriptions of the delayed adolescence of college life. The plot was well paced and kept the pages turning. Great summer reading and totally worth picking up.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't usually read this kind of book, not at all. I took it off my step-mother's shelf while I was home for the holidays and read it. And I enjoyed it! I mean, it's funny, and Tom Perrotta makes writing look so effortlessly easy. I'm completely jealous of how he never struggles with making every page move, tells stories within stories, creates dialogue that sounds like a movie that isn't stupid, and all that jazz.

So, it's not a deep book or a heavy one, but it's entertaining, inoffensive (that is, he didn't seem to be trying to make any points in the book that offended me; in fact, even though it is a boys' book, I think the women come out really well), and, most importantly, it's satisfying. The ends are not loosed or frayed, every detail fits so nicely.

I really recommend you give a copy of this book to any male college writing major because A) he'll really enjoy it, B) he'll relate with it, and C) he'll learn a thing or two about craft when writing about college life, as every young man I knew during my college English major years was so wont to do.

[Taka · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Funny Page-turner--

Especially after the dark world of Ellroy, this came as a relief and grateful change of pace. It's a breeze of a read that makes you forget about the flow of time and immerse you in a pleasant, lighthearted fictional dream.

Being an Ivy graduate myself, I thoroughly enjoyed his portrayal of Yale and what nightmares could befall on an undergraduate. His observations are both funny and dead-on when it comes to describing certain actions the characters in his story do and the peculiar atmosphere that prevails at an Ivy school.

Perrotta writes plainly in the tradition of Vonnegut and it makes me appreciate the simplicity of language all the more as my writing style tends to fall on the opposite side of the fence.

Overall, highly recommended, and I can't wait to read his other works.

[Ravi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Danny is an introspective, intelligent kid from working class New Jersey going through his Junior year as an English major at Yale in the early eighties. He doesn't fit in at home in New Jersey but seems to fit in at Yale even though all his friends come from wealthy upper class families. The most interesting parts of the book take place back home in NJ with his parents, his friends or his summer fling with a local girl. He is a likable kid even though he doesn't always make the conventional right decision. He can be self centered but even those selfish decisions end up OK. Most of the book is the ordinary that most of us experience but the author does add in a few dramatic elements that speed things up without distracting too much from Joe College. All the characters are what you would expect in the real world - shades of grey versus black or white.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Perrotta's novel Joe College is an interesting examination of how adolescents and young adults enact different social roles. Danny is the son of a blue collar lunch truck driver from New Jersey. Danny also happens to attend Yale where he works in a university dining hall. These two environments help to show the contrast in the world of Yale. These three environments are what set us up to understand the differences in the culture of Danny's home in New Jersey, the people who work in the dining hall, and Danny's friends who are students.

In this novel, everyone is trying to negotiate the boundaries of their worlds. Danny is struggling with the belief that he doesn't belong at Yale because he didn't attend a fancy prep school, and his parents aren't wealthy republicans. Meanwhile, his friends are also struggling to deal with their new place in the world.

[Candice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just trudged through a whole book about a guy I don’t like. Where’s my medal?

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since most reviewers already give a brief summary of the book, I will skip that and get right to my review.

I love this book!!! I found it on the bargain shelf at Borders a few years ago and took a chance on it. What a fun story and hilarious cast of characters. I have since read every book written by Mr. Perrotta and will continue to do so. None of the others have quite made the same impression on me as Joe College but (for me) the emotion of not knowing what to expect and then to be completely, pleasantly surprised does not come around often. I found it to be a real gem. I thought it was much better than Perrotta's "Bad Haircut" or The Wishbones".

[Abigail Hillinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not Perrotta's best. Not nearly.

Kind of a simple story. College boy likes college girl, college boy unknowingly gets involved with townie girl from back home, college boy gets townie girl preggers. Add in some stories about working at the dining hall and some random gang violence (even though it's set at Yale), and that's basically the story.

It wasn't comparable to Election, Little Children, or Wishbones, but still. It's Tom Perrotta and deserves even a quick skim. Maybe I simply need to re-read it...but honestly, I'd rather re-read the three books listed above.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book about class differences, life in an Ivy League school in the 8os, and the daily travails of the lunch cart industry. Danny, the main character, is a likeable guy who takes us on a first-person account of his college years, with several hilarious anecdotes along the way.

I didn't like many references to books (most "classics") that I hadn't read - while the author is being true to the 1st person narrative of our English major main character, I just felt uncultured - and set the book down to Google references to books I've never read.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

While nowhere near the level of literary heft and satirical bite as Little Children, Joe College is still an entirely enjoyable read with some probing questions into the relationship between upper and lower classes, between privileged Ivy Leaguers and the townies that serve them.

The plot tends to meander and Perotta fleshes out relationships that are irrelevant at best, but the book overall is a great read. Good on its own, but less enviable when compared to Little Children.

[Karen Germain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Perrotta a few months ago and I am continuing in my quest to read all of his novels. I had read some bad reviews about this one, but I liked it just as much as I liked his other books. I found it relatable and entertaining. I really liked Danny, especially since he wasn't perfect and often made bad choices. I liked that he stuck to his convictions, even if to his own detriment. The ending was a touch odd. Perrotta is great at writing ending paragraphs that make an impression.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great - it reminded me of a Curtis Sittenfeld book in the amazing little details that made it a joy to read. I did not like it as much as Little Children but I think this was one of Perrotta's first books. He does a great job making fun of some of the ridiculousness of college life, for example a section in the beginning on highlighting that I thought was basically brilliant. The overall story is very entertaining with a thought provoking main character.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another amazing witty book by Tom Perrotha. The characters are hysterical and not forgettable,which is a huge plus. It reminded me a lot college,because of the mess the friends got them into to. Danny and Chuck were my favorite character,they were just hilarious. Also I can relate this book, the characters often reminded me of myself in certain ways. However I was disappointed with the ending, but other than that this is a good read;highly recommend.

[Yuckamashe · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know it's bad when two characters have similar names and you keep confusing them and instead of figuring out who is who you just keep reading. That was when I realized I just didn't give a fuck. I was so bored and uninterested I didn't even love or hate any of the characters. I kept reading because it wasn't bad enough to hate. Douche college guys talking like acting like the lame dudes they are.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in 2002, while on summer break from college. I know for sure I finished it. I remember nothing about it. Therefore, I can only determine that it was, at best, OK. I know I didn't hate it because I but Tom Perrotta on my to-read list and ended up liking both Election and Little Children quite a bit more.