'Pledged' interesting, if not accurate

As a member of a sorority, "Pledged: the Secret Life of Sororities" called out to me from its spot on the bookshelf at Borders. It promised an insider's account of a year inside a sorority on the campus of a large Southern university. The insider in this case is Alexandra Robbins, a reporter who poses as a college student and friend of the four girls she chooses to follow. Robbins, with the four willing members, chronicles the ins and outs of daily life in two sorority houses for an academic year.\nDuring the year, Robbins watches the once shy Vicki break up with her long-term boyfriend and go on to break a series of hearts, which Robbins asserts is due to her sisters' influence. Caitlin endures a stormy and often abusive relationship with a man her mother adores while nursing the emotional wounds of rape. Sabrina, a black member of a mainly white sorority, gets involved in a sexual relationship with a professor and tosses out her long-time dream of medical school, despite her sisters' protests. Amy, in her quest for a boyfriend, engages in a series of one night stands that leave her more confused than when she started.\nIn addition to following the lives of these four girls, Robbins also explores various aspects of everyday sorority life, including drinking, drugs, boys, rituals and hazing. She also compares the traditionally white "mainstream" sororities with the multicultural sororities and mixed gender organizations. Robbins excavates the differences in recruitment styles and new member periods and reveals the secret meanings behind several sororities' letters and symbols, meant to be known by members alone.\nThe major flaw with Robbins' conclusion and analysis of problems faced by her subjects is her willingness to blame everything on the sorority. In her analysis, joining a sorority seems to be a one-way ticket to sexual promiscuity, binge drinking, recreational drug use and hazing. However, some college students will always drink too much whether or not there is a greek system to provide party venues. Some will smoke marijuana. Some will sleep around. These behaviors are not caused by a woman or man choosing to join a greek letter organization; they are simply behaviors in which thousands upon thousands of students engage each year.\nRobbins grows even more ambitious in her suggestions about how to improve greek life, which are tacked on to the end of the book. While some suggestions -- like eliminating hazing -- are perfectly reasonable and desirable, others -- such as setting up individual application and interview procedures for membership -- are not practical when dealing with a greek system that measures its members in the thousands. \nWhile "Pledged" is in many ways entertaining, it cannot be taken as the gospel truth about life in a sorority. I cannot say whether or not this book offers an accurate look into sorority life at the university where Robbins made her observations. However, I can say it doesn't accurately reflect what life is like in every sorority house across the country. The book's voyeuristic element is satisfying, but the stories must be taken with a large grain of salt.\n"Pledged: the Secret Life of Sororities" is published by Hyperion Books. It has a list price of $23.95 and is available at www.amazon.com.