Why are campus satires so funny? Because anyone who has spent time in a college town can picture these characters down to the ground. Smiley’s sharp writing shifts pov all over campus; a sensitive and hardworking research hog, a local farmer who has plans to revolutionize farming if he can just get past the secretary that runs the campus, a black first-year from Chicago stranded in the dorms at Moo U., a creative writing professor on the verge of tenure, his profoundly untalented student Gary, the econ professor who with a perfectly clear conscience recommends destroying the last virgin cloud forest, etc. etc. The episodic nature of these self absorbed folks comes to a satisfyingly tongue in cheek conclusion in the the spring semester, when all the storylines intersect. This book comes up often on lists of great comic novels and with good reason.
Highly recommended.
Don’t read this book if you like Chabon’s writing, it will bore you to tears. Do read if you want a mid-quality daddy memoir. I now know way too much about his homelife, but his observations come back at odd times and are insightful although of limited scope: legos, his wife’s mental illness, his mom’s sexlife (well that explains something.)
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