Cecily von Ziegesar, the woman behind the popular Gossip Girl "novels," has a new book set to go on sale in a few week's time. I haven't read even a page of von Ziegesar's earlier work, though I have watched a few episodes of the television adaptation of her popular novels about Manhattan prep school teens. (Between the almost comical melodrama and arrant lack of realism, I've not become a regular viewer. I would, however, highly recommend Modern Family on ABC.) But von Ziegesar's latest work, titled Cum Laude, piqued my interest because it's set an élite liberal arts college in Maine. (It's worth mentioning that von Ziegesar attended Colby College.)

While I doubt I'll buy a copy of the novel, I did take ten minutes this morning to read an excerpt published on the Vanity Fair website. Based on what I read, I don't think Jane Austen or Edith Wharton need worry. Though I couldn't help but smirk when I read the first paragraph:

College is for lovers. At least, this one was. Looming up out of the trees on its hilly pedestal, Dexter College looked so strikingly pretty and at the same time so quaintly academic, it was almost as out of place in its rural setting as some of its students. Homeward Avenue, the road that led uphill to campus from Interstate 95, continued down the hill to the blink-and-you'll-miss-it town of Home, Maine, which consisted of a Walmart, a Shop 'n Save, the Rod and Gun Club, and a few other mom-and-pop shops frequented only by locals.

Substitute "Bates" for "Dexter," and swap out some of the other street and place names, and one has a remarkably good description of my school.