A biting satire peppered with harsh truths about university politics and academic shenanigans.
When a fictional university falls out of the Top 25 in a national magazine ranking, hysteria erupts on campus.
In this debut novel, Jones constructs Ty McTavish as a measured voice of reason in a sea of egomaniacs, sycophants and blowhards. McTavish, an African-American biophysics professor recently hired as the dean of arts and sciences at SNAF-U (“Small but National, Aspiring to be Famous University”), is welcomed by several colleagues who awkwardly assure him that race was not a factor in his selection. Just as he begins to adjust to his new surroundings, SNAF-U’s banishment from the elite grouping occurs, a calamity that spurs Robert Sligh, the unctuous university president, to rally the troops in hopes of overcoming this latest challenge: “We have endured the Great Depression, two World Wars, and the loss of Division I football.” Language is often stretched to its limits in academia, and here, the author is at his best, as the parodic text bursts with linguistic wordplay, from names (Olan Azkizur) and acronyms (NONSENSE) to departments (Statistical Theology) and ranking criteria (Tuitional Aggrandizement Originality). One character becomes so caught up in academic jargon that she makes no sense, sanctimoniously invoking “this epoch of interdisciplanaritiness and multiculturalment.” Despite this gleeful element, however, readers may notice rough patches in the narrative structure and pacing. For instance, Jones introduces the voracious, irresistible Jamais Dimanche quite late in the book, though she plays an integral role in the plan to return SNAF-U to its place in the Top 25 via distortion and subterfuge. The book also relies a bit too heavily on the epilogue to tie up loose narrative threads. While Jones focuses on questionable ethics within the administration, he also addresses many other issues plaguing postsecondary education, including institutionalized racism, grade inflation, and fraternization between faculty members and students. For inspiration, perhaps the author drew upon firsthand observations from his long career in university education, research and administration.
A biting satire peppered with harsh truths about university politics and academic shenanigans.Pub Date: April 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1483619552
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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