2005-01-24 Freshers Fortnight

After covering football hooligans (Awaydays), pop music (Powder), package tours (Leisure) and Liverpool criminals (Outlaws and Clubland) in previous books, Sampson turns his attention to the terrifying time of life known in the UK as "Freshers Fortnight." In the US, this is called "First Year Orientation"-but whatever the name, it's a time of mighty highs and lows as hordes of teenagers leave home for their first year of college. The novel does a nice job of portraying the haphazard struggle to make friendships, forge identities, and survive homesickness that characterizes those first few months.

Set in Sheffield, the story is told through Kit Hannah, a cooler-than thou indie music maven who, behind a thin veil of cynicism and misanthropy, is not as different from his classmates as he thinks. He's quite the teen Holden Caufield, finding everyone phony, and distrusting friendliness. But it doesn't take much convincing for him to be sucked into the vortex of pubs, clubbing, dorm room spliffs, and deep meaningful talks that are the staple of college life everywhere. Soon, he's amassed a little circle of friends that will sustain and define his first year. The people that make up this supporting cast are all quite easy to imagine (the public school athletic type, the sexy older woman student, the sassy but undesirable galpal, the poseur tall-tale teller, the American uberfeminist, etc.), but a touch too melodramatic. Each one has some kind of hidden secret or quality that defines them, and eventually each will be revealed to Kit and the reader. Of course Kit has his own deep dark secret, and it's a pretty startling one that explains much of his problem with people.

The story is set entirely outside the classroom, taking place mostly after hours, as Kit struggles to make sense of his new life and what all these new people mean to him. As the story cascades through pubs, parties, restaurants, and dorm rooms, it's studded with plenty of comic moments, along with a number of those wince-inducing embarrassing scenes that are the staple of that first year of college. It's a never-pretentious, but occasionally soap-operaish trip back to that time when we all struggled desperately to stay true to ourselves and fit in enough to make friends and live happily. Admittedly, it very nearly goes over the top at times, but the incisive dissection of Kit's insecurities make it a memorable read.