HARD LESSONS: Senior Year at Beverly Hills High School

by Michael Leahy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1988

Somewhere between the spirited innocence of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the amoral hedonism of Less Than Zero are the real teen-agers that inspired them: in this entertaining and revealing book, Leahy captures their lives, thoughts, and feeling, and he does so with honesty and respect. Leahy spent the year 1985-'86 interviewing and observing seniors at wealthy, competitive Beverly Hills High. He's constructed six composite profiles and leads us through senior year with a narrative style that combines novelistic technique with documentary intent. The result is a smooth tour of a world peopled by stressed-out, premature adults. The expected casual sex and drugs are here, and wealth taken for granted is striking, but looming much larger is unrelenting social and academic pressure. These are young people careful not to reveal themselves to friends--anything nonconformist might be used against them, affect their social status--and for many, concerns about grades, college and career leave little room for being kids. Leahy doesn't belabor it, but, clearly, their parents--professionally successful, but mostly divorced and disillusioned--shaped this world. Their children suspect there's right and wrong, but they've never seen the point in choosing between them. Politics and religion are a waste of time and love an unlikely extravagance: success is all. And in Beverly slang, to succeed--in business, school or seduction--is ""to scam."" Leahy is skillful enough to have it both ways: a disturbing portrait of the next generation of overachievers, his book still retains the vicarious fascination of the highschool exposÉ genre.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION