Fair’s Fair “For Book Lovers”

Wasserman, Robin. Hacking Harvard. New York: Simon Pulse, 2007

Yesterday, I was wandering around bookstores as is usual on a Friday afternoon. I asked one of the clerks what teenagers are reading these days. She was only too happy to show me books by several authors including Aiden Chambers’ Postcards from No Man’s Land and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. I intend to read both works at some point soon and added them to the pile on my ironing board (the ironing board suffices as an extension of my night table.). When the clerk asked how old my teenager was, I had to admit that it was I who wanted to know about such works. I really have no idea about what teens read. After tripping over some two or three year olds and wandering through a play area in the store, plus rows of books set up by age, I further explored the teen section on my own and decided that if I were to play the role of a teenager for an evening Robin Wasserman’s Hacking Harvard might be a good choice to read. It was.

Hacking Harvard deals with three guys (one already at Harvard who is a sixteen year old child prodigy easily talked into doing anything) who in a contest with three others decide to figure out what it takes to “get” someone accepted to Harvard. They use cameras, lasers, hidden microphones, and do computer hacking in order to obtain enough information and re-write records to allow a most unlikely candidate—one of their past school mates in. The unlikely candidate, given the bland name of Clay, actually performs quite well on his interview when the miniscule microphone from which he is fed answers suddenly goes dead. In fact, he decides to stay at Harvard once he’s in and completes a degree in an area of visual arts. Added to the hacking scenes are more scenes of teenage girls invading the prodigy’s room and the usual games, tricks, partying, and so on that goes on in dorms.

The entire novel is far-fetched, but there are enough twists and turns and surprise events to make it fun, even for those of us who are decades beyond the teen years. Harvard, despite what everyone knows about it—that cheating goes on, that the upper-class gets first chance at attendance and on—remains the archetypal notion of university and the house of the intellect, and it is there in the background and sometimes in the foreground throughout the novel with all its symbolism and power. This is not a novel I would likely read twice, but the dialogue is lively, the suspense is actually suspenseful, and it makes for a pleasant evening read. I would certainly recommend it as a worthwhile read for teenagers and adults interested in a playful, imaginative, light read.

Finally, I am always personally reluctant to say a book is for a certain age. I find it astonishing that bookstores can so readily divide their books for children into age groups, but I was a precocious child so never quite figured out the notion of age at all. There’s a lot to be said for being ageless.