Admission
By Jean Hanff Korelitz
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Grand Central Publishing, 452 pages, $24.99
“The flight from Newark to Hartford,” begins “Admission,” “took no more than fifty-eight minutes, but she still managed to get her heart broken three times.” No lovesick youth, this is the voice of a college admissions officer at the center of this intricately plotted novel. While most Americans are preoccupied with tax season, millions of others carry another burden — college acceptance letters. (Fat or thin?) An engaging read, not yet another stereotypical look at crazed applicants, this novel provides distraction while awaiting the mail delivery. It allows students (and parents) to feel that the people making decisions are fallible humans, and it challenges readers to grasp the importance of what we admit to ourselves.