SNUCK PAST DEATH AND SLEEP

In Pierce’s debut novel, four students at a small Midwestern college join a philosophy club that organizes an explosive debate.

As the fall term begins at Wasserman College in 1987, four students arrive on campus, each harboring reservations about the experience. Eighteen-year-old Paul Jorkinn has indicated he’d prefer a gay roommate, and transfer student Edward Filkers has done the same. Lynn Ritchie, a lifelong resident of the town, registers for music classes despite the fact that she, like many other locals, never cared about the college very much. Occasional student Craig Loomis, having left his factory job, reregisters at Wasserman for one more go. Overseeing the students is administrator Amelia Rosser, who’s personally assigned Edward and Paul to the same room and is fully aware of the potentially controversial nature of that decision. The lengthy narrative stretches over more than 750 pages and revolves around the campus philosophy club, which takes the provocative step of organizing a campus debate regarding homosexuality and religious doctrine. Meanwhile, gay students, including Edward and Paul, push to form an activist gay and lesbian organization—a move that some other students view as radical. As the plans move forward, tensions rise on campus, and a new kind of activism leads to fears of unforeseen consequences. Over the course of Pierce’s epic-length novel, he does a fine job of characterizing university life in the late 1980s, including the intense bigotry toward gay people, which included violence. The various characters are well drawn, for the most part. However, there are also too many people with the surname Smith, which may lead to some confusion. The students’ philosophical discussions can also be rather lengthy, so that the writing starts to feel hazy, and the main thread of the plot gets lost. The impassioned conclusion is an effective one. However, a stronger edit would have trimmed the excess before it.

An earnest but overlong story about philosophy, gay rights, and religion.