The Graduate - Charles Webb

I read that Charles Webb was coming out with a sequel to his 1963 classic, The Graduate (later turned into the classic movie by the same name). I saw the movie a long time ago, but had never read the book. So, I thought I'd check it out before reading the new one, Home School, which takes place 10 years after The Graduate. The Graduate is the story of Ivy-League graduate Benjamin Braddock, who returns home after graduation, disillusioned with American-society, depressed, and unmotivated to face his future. He has the famous affair with the older Mrs. Robinson, but later falls in love with her daughter Elaine. Braddock's character is insufferable. I have to admit that he is a more-modern day Holden Cauilfield - which suggests to me that the angst I identified with when I read The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager would probably seem so infantile and boring now. Which means, I probably should have read The Graduate just as I was graduating from college, disillusioned, and unsure about my own future. It probably would have spoken to me much more clearly back then. Now, it all seems incredibly unrealistic -- particularly all the interactions between Ben and Elaine -- and downright irritating. Of course, I'm still going to read the sequel to see how it all turns out.