Review: A Highball Please, With a Dash of Introspection
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 31, 2013
This is a truly delighful reminiscence of a young girl entering the college and more importantly the world of her dreams.  No, this is not "A Seperate Peace" or "Catcher In The Rye," nor does it pretend to be.  Thankfully, it lacks the pretentiousness and solemnity of those tomes. Think of it as a flyer for "Zuleika Dobson, or an Oxford Love Story" and not "Brideshead Revisited."Its charm is in its spontaniety and youthful naivete and paradoxically some gentle sophisticated self-analysis.  Too short, no, it is what it is. A brief sojourn to the memories of innocence that the youth have when seeking what they think are their dreams.I feel that this book may have been written in a few weeks? days? and that Ms. Plum has novel in her about women in present day Oxford - if Max Beerbohm hovers over her. A little fun and a little insightful commentary.I did find amusing the small details she includes, such as "pigeon mail". Also I was releaved to find that the Oxford male undergraduate is as sophomoric and clumsy as his American counterpart vis a vis dealing with co-eds (if they are still called that).