By Lilly Ward
Correspondent
The pressure to be accepted into a school with a reputable name is often a source of dread. Many students can become lost in the quagmire of competing with peers for acceptance at prestigious universities and many more students feel the embarrassment of not being accepted or being financially unable to go to one of these schools. In his new novel, “Party School,” Jon Hart offers a fresh take on a source of anxiety for many high school seniors.
For the protagonist at the center of the novel, Dylan Mills, concerns about the status of his college plague him. An incoming freshman at North-South (a college infamous not for its academic rigor but for students’ fondness for smoking weed and partying), Dylan dreads attending a school that everyone in his hometown seems to look down on.
In affluent Castleton, where the public school has an equestrian team and grounds keepers cut the grass to an exact two-and-a-half inches, all everyone seems to want to talk about is where they or their kids will go to college — or at least it appears that way to Dylan. As someone from a middle-class family, as opposed to the upper class population that appears to make up the majority of Castletown, Dylan often feels like an outsider in his one hometown, which is somewhat pretentiously referred to as a “village” rather than a town. He would rather work shifts at the local restaurant than party with his classmates.
His relationship with his girlfriend, Rosemary Silversmith, fully demonstrates that he has an inferiority complex. It is clear from the very beginning of the novel that Rosemary is Dylan’s whole world. A “shiny specimen,” as described by Dylan, Rosemary is outgoing, athletic and charismatic, and she is going to an “it” school.
Dylan feels both the strain of the separation as well as the judgment of Rosemary and her parents for his failure to attend a school with a prestigious reputation. He also feels a wave of impending doom at the thought of his and Rosemary’s separation, made much worse by the fact that Rosemary suggests that they see other people when they start college in order to “grow.”
Dylan doesn’t want to grow though, at least not until he is forced to by an eccentric sociology professor, along with a fellow classmate and motorcycle enthusiast named Wally and a girl on the basketball team named Sam who Dylan can’t help but be drawn to. Of course, there are also his well meaning but nonetheless overbearing parents, who are “happily divorced,” that support Dylan through his transition to college. The one person who seems to be holding Dylan back from growing is Rosemary.
Along with cautioning readers against choosing a school for the name, Hart also appears to emphasize the damage done by defining oneself through a relationship.
Dylan’s teenage infatuation appears to be mostly one-sided and jeopardizes his chance to fully immerse himself in his college experience and forge his own identity; however, the idealized image that Dylan carries of Rosemary is compromised when she reveals to Dylan that she is embarrassed that he goes to North South.
It is clear that Rosemary is not a character that Hart wants the reader to route for. When she is caught in the crossfires of a cheating scandal that involves many residents of Castleton, she tells Dylan, “our lawyers say that the government has no case. They can only prove that we hired a college consultant, and who in castleton doesn’t hire a college consultant?” The scandal within Castleton bears a resemblance to the “Varsity Blues” scandal in 2019, in which wealthy families paid more than $25 million to a college admissions counselor, Rick Singer, to bribe college officials at top universities.
Dylan, whose parents are both middle school teachers, is shocked that she would casually mention that her parents spent $50,000 on a college consultant. Despite being told that she is charismatic and attractive, the appeal of Rosemary is hard to imagine, especially after repeatedly treating Dylan like an afterthought. Perhaps Hart hopes to capture the all-encompassing nature of first love and the blindness that results from it.
Although the transition from high school to college and the torment of a first love are far from unexplored topics, Hart manages to bring a fresh perspective to this coming-of-age novel. His musings on the ranking of colleges is perceptive yet lighthearted. Dylan is a reliably likable character who gradually develops a laser sharp sense of self-awareness and a keen sense of humor. Even though at times his white, middle-class woes may seem tired, he is willing to admit to the reader that he knows that his pursuit of validation within Castleton is insignificant at the end of the day.
It is rewarding to see how Dylan comes to see the value in not only the quality of education that he receives from a lesser known school, but the friendships and relationships that he develops by being open to new experiences. He goes out to a bar and dances with the girls basketball team, befriends a professor, sings at parties, joins a motorcycle club and even streaks across a football field, all while balancing schoolwork.
Dylan’s resilience and willingness to accept the support of others around him is what allows him to finally grow. When he frees himself from the expectations of others, he is finally able to accept North-South as his home. In the end, it is up to Dylan to define his own college experience rather than let himself be defined by where he goes to school.
Hart’s insight into the college experience may put incoming freshmen at ease about the transition from highschool to college. Although his depiction of college life may sometimes depart from reality (it’s rare to see a college freshman attend that many parties and stay on top of homework,) "Party School" lets freshmen know that there is much to look forward to in college. Above all, Hart impresses upon the reader the importance of individual growth as well as developing platonic, romantic, or professional relationships. For those who are no longer college freshmen, "Party School" offers a chance to reminisce about the exhilarating mix of anxiety and excitement that characterizes the first year of college.
