Bad Charlotte (contains spoiler)

I finished I Am Charlote Simmons by Tom Wolfe the other day. I got through it pretty quickly for a nearly 700 page novel. I stand by my opinion that much of the book reads like an old man writing about things he doesn't know about anymore, but it was still entertaining. I was a little shocked by the cynicism of the ending. Taking a glance through the Amazon.com reviews it seems like a lot of people thought it was a happy ending. I thought it was cynical as hell and showed that nothing ever really changes. It's a 688 page testament to the Ladder Theory. We've got a smart, ambitious, motivated, originally pure female protagonist and in the end she winds up with shitty grades, an over-awareness and over-reliance on the effect her physical attractiveness has on men and prime status as the big jock's girlfriend. What a stale paradigm for the new millenium.