“Elegaic...the tension of the book flows from the fact that Ben’s status and advantages have prepared him for a version of adolescence that no reality can live up to.”
St. James is an exclusive New England boarding school known for grooming generations of leaders. Ben Weeks is a true insider: his ancestors helped found St. James, his older brother taught him all the slang, and he’s just won a national championship in squash. But his parents have gone bankrupt and can’t pay his tuition, and his roommate Ahmed Al-Khaled, the son of a fabulously wealthy Dubai sheik, can’t navigate the unspoken rules of New England blue bloods.
Both boys arrive at the school in the last days before the internet age, determined to become the ideal St. James man, the ideal American leader. But even as Ben & Ahmed struggle to prove themselves in the place they’ve revered for so long, they begin to doubt its worth.
The Expectations is at once a finely drawn portrait of American privilege and a subtle exploration of class, race, and tradition. Above all, it is a tender, sharp, and evocative debut about the pain and treachery of adolescence, and the difficulty--wherever one finds oneself--of truly belonging.
Listen to an interview with Carl Bialik on the Thirty Love Podcast, a review of The Expectations on NPR affiliate WBAA, and an interview with Liz Lanier on the Weekly Reader Podcast.
“Tilney applies supple, panoramic prose to the deep interior of an exclusive Northeastern prep school, with arresting results: at once anthropological and visceral, The Expectations provides an authoritative glimpse into a rarefied world of privilege — and announces a dazzling new voice in American fiction.”
“The humorous, powerful, and thoughtful debut novel examines what it means to come of age amidst great privilege—and serves as a gimlet-eyed reminder of all the things money can never buy.”
“ [A] sensitive and perceptive debut.”
“Tilney deftly limns the unchanging eponymous expectations: that students will graduate to the Ivy League and real-world leadership; that while at St. James they will uphold such dubious traditions as ferocious competitiveness in sports and brutal hazing of new students. But Tilney also nails the changing social climate of the mid-1990s...The Expectations paints a compassionate portrait of a confused young man groping for maturity...Smart, shrewdly observed, and highly readable.”
“Beautifully rendered, sharply observed, and intensely moving. Writing with uncommon acuity and generosity, Tilney pierces the heart of a boy, exposing it without betraying it. The Expectations is an unsentimental novel about adolescence, written for adults, to be read not so that we might remember our blundering younger selves but that we might forgive them. A gift of a novel.”
“Exquisite, haunting...A doozy of a first novel and worth your time.”
“The Expectations is the story of how fraught and chaotic and exhilarating it is on the cusp of adulthood while living among the wealthy, and the cruel. Tender but not sentimental, this novel marks the debut of a genuine talent, one I hope to keep reading for a very long time.”
“Rewarding... Tilney’s memorable boarding school novel hits the mark.”
“This beautifully written coming-of-age novel is a subtle exploration of WASP culture and elite institutions.”
“Riveting. A deeply resonant, brilliantly nuanced meditation on privilege, social ambition. and the folly (and cruelty) of youth. It is also a terrific read — funny, heartbreaking, and completely transporting from start to finish. A provocative and powerful debut.”
“The Expectations portrays all the intrigue of adolescence — sexual longing, competitive aspiration, and betrayal — while illuminating the most poignant of growing-up realities: It’s scary to figure out who you are, and even scarier when you have no idea. Tilney expertly evokes the human yearning to be recognized as Somebody, even when you fear you are nobody.”