AESOP'S COLLEGE

A writer imagines a university populated by animals in this satirical novel aimed at college politics.

To change with the times, progressive McDonald College has ended its species-ist policies by opening itself up to animals as well as humans. The renamed Aesop College switches to an all-animal faculty led by President Reynaldo Sourgrapes, a fox, and Provost Gullinburst Hamhock, a former comfort pig. The new student body is made up mostly of cats: “The feline demographic was the biggest and provided the best chance for a sustainable economic model. Cats preferred to be pampered, but they might be teachable.” When Professor Socks, a border collie who teaches literature, reads to his students from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, his use of the word Mungojerrie—considered highly offensive by felines—causes quite a stir. Socks’ reluctance to issue a full-throated apology launches a firestorm directed at him and the university, pitting notions of academic freedom against the outrage of student activism and cancel culture. Adamo (New Monks in Old Habits, 2014, etc.) himself was suspended from the university where he taught for quoting the n-word while discussing a James Baldwin essay in which the term appears, and as such this book may be read as a sort of allegorical memoir. Adamo places himself firmly on one side of the argument, as he proves in his skewering of those at pains to never offend anyone. “She was my comfort animal,” the well-meaning human student body president says of Gullinburst. “No, no. There are so many things wrong with that sentence. First, I can’t believe the name I gave you. As if it was even my right to assign you a name. Gullinburst! My childish obsession with Norse mythology gone cuckoo. No, not ‘cuckoo.’ That’s anti-avian.” This short book isn’t quite as funny as readers would like—there are a lot of puns—but the author makes his arguments in a clear and often clever way. (If people decide to root out “species-ist” terms from the English language, a lot of idioms will have to go.) Adamo is not attempting to simply discredit the other side, and the plot—through its many twists and complications—deftly eases toward reconciliation between faculty and students. Readers who resist getting angry at the premise will be rewarded by nuance further along.

An engaging satirical approach to issues of free speech and safe spaces on American campuses.