Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but ultimately disappoints
Review: Perrotta does a good job of setting up the situation and establishing interesting characters. The story has potential, but when the protaganist faces a major moral dilemma, Perrotta just lets him skate by. I felt there were too many missed opportunities and easy answers to give this book a high rating.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid and sort of true
Review: The college days came rolling back, although it had only been about three years. Most of the descriptions and antics are still so true today, which makes the backdrop for the book such an interesting nostalgia read for somebody just out of college. Although not Yale.This was my first Perrotta novel, and though some of the criticism is harsh, I found the narrator somewhat interesting even if a bit unrealistic. How many things can bounce off one person without him even getting the remote hint of responsibility? People like Danny, the main character, are people you love to hate. He is almost of a reverse-case scenario to the silver-spooned Yalie. He had a working-class upbrining but in the end proved to be as spoiled as they come. Maybe it was the spite that kept me reading this book and highly entertained at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Not impressive
Review: I was disappointed in this book. I wanted to like it. I looked forward to reading it. But, it was a sharp let down. Even when writing this review, I wanted to give it 3 stars but reluctantly admitted to myself that it only honestly earned 2. _Joe College_ has its moments but all in all it just meanders about. There are some interesting characters, but they are poorly developed. At first the reader tries desperately to like the protagonist, Dan, but in the end just realizes that this guy is hopeless, pathetic, and morally bankrupt (and not even in a fun way). I kept wishing the book had been written with one of the more interesting dormmates as the lead character. There are amusing bits (highliter madness had me laughing out loud), but more often than not I was just eager to finish plowing through this book so I could get onto better reads. Perhaps I am missing the purported glories of this book because I am female. (It is very much a male oriented story.) I'll give the benefit of the doubt on this count. But, all in all, I'd say spend your money on a different text. END
Rating: 
Summary: thoughtful book
Review: although i am but an adolescent and know nothing about college life in the early eighties, i agree with many others in saying that this book was amazingly funny and real. danny reminded me much of holden caulfield in THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, as do many of the other protagonists introduced to me these days. i was happy, though, to discover that danny did not cry as much. this book offered comic relief, a rude awakening for me of a whole new world to come as i grow older, and the reality that some people have lived or even live now. i strongly recommend this book for anyone BEYOND their freshman year in high school. the story is about danny, who is somewhat a ladies' man. he attends yale university, fortunate enough to be there since his parents are no where near able to afford such a school. during the summers and breaks, he helps his father in the roach coach that he owns. this book follows him as a number of events threaten to tarnish his life. what is really cool about this story is that there is this weird voice that comes and tells him things, but this voice only appears twice or so. what is also very cool is the variety of characters and their own personal relationships that danny somehow knows about. GOOD BOOK. READ IT.
Rating:
Summary: Another small masterpiece
Review: Tom Perrotta is the Bruce Springsteen of modern fiction, or perhaps a cross between Springsteen and the late Laurie Colwin. No grand themes or sweeping family sagas, but living and learning, screwing up and starting over, surviving and moving on. Everything he writes is touching and immediate.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Writing
Review: OK, i'm a college student so i thought i'd love this book just because i'd be able to relate to the average college student. and i loved the writing and i loved the story, but i did not love the main character. likeable he was. loveable-nope. he got off so easy for the things he did. in the end, everyone deserved what they got except for the main character. the descrption of college was right on, and the pretentiousness was characteristically ivy with a touch of the universality of the college experience. there were a number of humorous moments. a number of touching moments as well. ultimately, i was satisfied with myself for having read the book. i recommend-it is a fast and enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: Funny!
Review: After I read Election, I had to read more books by Tom Perrotta. Luckily, he came out with Joe College, and it was wonderful! It was one of the funniest novels I've read in months, and it was bursting with Perrotta's honest writing. Read this book, you won't regret it!
Rating:
Summary: "Joe College" Takes Contemporary Writers To School
Review: The last words of Perrotta's new novel still resonate within me the wish that the novel wouldn't end. "Joe College" is a smoothly written, easily approachable novel of a Jersey boy going to school at Yale. Essentially, he belongs to two worlds, but between the ivy league walls of Connecticut and blue collar towns of NJ, which one does he belong more in? Such is the book's engrossing focus, as spoken by the main character. Engrossing and very likeable, with charismatic characters that we've known as close friends, acquaintances or even ourselves. It's entertaining, insightful, and easily engaging to the average reader. Many plot twists, but not TOO many too quickly, so the reader's able to keep up, and stay interested. I dug it, and hope you do, too.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best, but still recommended
Review: I agree almost completely with the two reviews which precede this--namely that I didn't think it was as good as the masterly "Wishbones" or "Election", but I'd recommend it anyway. In fact, though I read alot of novels, I have to say that Perotta is one of the very few authors whose new books I will buy just because of who wrote it. His writing style is simple yet elegant, his ear for dialogue excellent, and it is impossible for him to be dull. Yet somehow, it seemed to me as if the whole was slightly less than the sum of the parts. If you haven't read any of his works, I might suggest reading them in the order they were written (starting with The Wishbones), and if you have, Joe College is still enjoyable reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad...
Review: Perrotta does have a very good writing style. His use of dialogue is very exact and it kept this book moving for me. The plot was of interest to me, though I did not go to college in this era. I felt a little lost in the latter parts of the book. There seemed to be a central focus in the beginning and, for me, it tapered off considerably. I really wanted more of an interaction, later in the story, between Cindy and the narrator.
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