Chloe Does Yale

A sparkling first novel by Natalie Krinsky, the witty, provocative sex columnist for the Yale Daily News.

Chloe Carrington is a typical Yale student, except that along with toiling through the usual grind of coursework, she pens a notorious and much-dished-over sex column for the campus newspaper. This touch of fame has wrought havoc on her social and love life, turning it literally into an open book. Chloe doesn't help matters much; she likes to share and can't resist divulging the gory details of her most recent date (or lack thereof) in her column, baring her soul for all to see.

Like her friends, she dreams of hooking up with Mr. Right, at least for a little while — but that proves even more arduous than participating in Yale's notorious "shopping" session (a two-week period in which students are encouraged to take as many classes as possible, in order to decide what courses to enroll in for that semester). As Chloe probes the campus hot spots, we get a peek at just what goes on behind the Ivy League's dormitory doors — from drinking at Toad's to "Exotic Erotic" (Yale's answer to a Hugh Hefner-style Playboy party, complete with coeds in skimpy bikinis).

Teeming with exuberance and late-night shenanigans, Natalie Krinsky's novel is filled with humor and candor about typical college situations both inside and outside the dorm room.

"It's Girls of the Ivy League by a girl of the Ivy League — or at least that's what readers might think at first glance. The reality is a bit more tongue-in-cheek, though not quite a step up in class. Krinsky, student author of a biweekly sex column for the Yale Daily News, writes what she knows with this tale of the adventures of the author of a biweekly sex column for the Yale Daily News. Her fictional stand-in, Chloe Carrington, is a native New Yorker and acts the part — even when she's forced to leave a party clad only in a garbage bag, she manages to accessorize with 'two-hundred-dollar lime green heels and large gold earrings.' It's adventures like this that she reflects on in her column, entertaining many (Krinsky's real-life column gets 350,000 Web hits a week) and disgusting others. Among her critics is anonymous YaleMale05, with whom she embarks on a flirtatious e-mail relationship. It's hard to blame her for fixating on a cybercrush when she has such a hard time finding a good man. Sure, she hooks up with guys all the time (to her Israeli-American mother's horror: 'Oy vavoy'), but finding the right one is a different story. A small crisis of conscience after an especially scandalous blow-job column adds a (tiny) bit of moral drama, but this is mostly a series of tired college party anecdotes, punctuated by Krinsky's real-life columns. Agents, Joni Evans and Andy McNicol. (Mar. 2) " Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"A dynamite debut novel." Cosmopolitan

"Lurching tipsily from one unfunny episode to the next, Krinsky's narrative strives to make her Chloe into a Carrie Bradshaw for the privileged college elite...but it scarcely musters up a chuckle." Kirkus Reviews

"This novel ends up being more about friendship and self-discovery than sex, a' la Sex in the City....[A] sweet and funny take on fledging relationships of all kinds." Booklist

A sparkling first novel by Natalie Krinsky, the witty, provocative sex columnist for the Yale Daily News. Author of a bi-weekly column, "Sex and the (Elm) City," Krinsky has the campus — and the country — buzzing.

Natalie Krinsky grew up in New York City and is a 21-year-old senior at Yale University. Author of a biweekly Yale Daily News column, "Sex and the (Elm) City," Krinsky has the campus — and country — buzzing. The New York Times says "her humor is distinctive" and hundreds of thousands log on to the yaledailynews.com website (350,000 hits per week) to read her hilarious columns.