Curtis Sittenfeld, opening her talk on Tuesday night, sounded more like the insecure heroine of her first novel, Prep, than a best-selling author when sheepishly asked, “This is a really weird question, but do any of you know my brother?” Then again, only about two dozen Hoyas showed up to hear Sittenfeld speak—fewer than I would have expected for an enclave of prepdom like Georgetown.

But maybe that’s just because if you’ve lived it, you don’t need to hear someone else talk about it. In response to a question from a graduate of the Groton School, Sittenfeld’s own alma mater, she said, “I think if I read a book about Groton that someone else wrote, I would find it really distracting,” and compared it to reading a book by another author about your own family (”But Aunt Myrtle’s car isn’t blue!”).

Sittenfeld read aloud from Prep and from her upcoming third novel, mentioned that Noah Baumbach (who wrote and directed 2005’s brilliant The Squid and the Whale) will write the screenplay for the movie version of Prep and discussed the different reactions that the novel has gotten. She said that some people view the ending—in which the main character realizes that all of the people she had spent her high school experience obsessing about are totally inconsequential in the scheme of things—as a downer, while others read it as a triumph. For her part, Sittenfeld seems to have mixed feelings.

“The happy ending is the realization of how insignificant your high school experience is,” she said. “It’s so weird, it doesn’t matter [now] … I almost wished I cared as much as I did in high school … Enjoy the campus life, you know, where you turn a corner and you might see that person you love or hate.”

Ed note: The Voice ran an interview Sittenfeld last week about Prep and her upcoming visit.  You can read it here. 

Photo courtesy Flickr user Misoon *our page*

EXIF Photo by Lynn Kirshbaum, Photo Editor

• 9.0 points per game doesn’t come for free: in our cover this week, I look into what makes freshman Austin Freeman the player he is today.  (Short answer: hard work, selflessness and raw talent.  Long answer: read it here.)
• Congressman Frank Wolf has been causing quite a fuss over a $20 million donation from a Saudi prince to Georgetown, News reports.  The Editorial Board tells Wolf he’s barking up the wrong tree.
• The Hoyas face off against the Cincinnati Bearcats on Saturday at the Verizon Center.  Tony Francavilla tells you why you shouldn’t be worried.  (Hint: the main reason is 7′ 2″ and has a hook shot that can’t be contained.)
• Looking for something to do after the game on Saturday?  Black Comedy is playing at the Devine Studio Theatre (you can buy tickets here) and Ryan May Handy says it’s not half-bad.
• Molly Redden takes us across the ocean and around the world with letters from a friend of hers in Kenya.
• If you still haven’t made up your mind about which GUSA ticket to vote for, maybe our article on Tuesday’s debate will help you out.  (And then go here to vote.)

And that is all the news that’s fit to print.  Well, most of it anyway.