The plot, as much as there is one plot here, is about money. We have a wide cast here that includes the lead researcher in hogs, the department of the horticulture department, a well-known biological researcher, a not very well known novelist, a fledging short story writer who casts his love interests in the leading (but not flattering) roles in his stories, and some female students who are also trying to figure things out. The latter are novels like Lucky Jim and Straight Man, with this novel being in the former. Usually campus novels come in two kinds (with huge swings in tone depending): following a wide cast of characters or one specific protagonist.
For example, nearly every building on campus is named after another university either directly or indirectly. We end up with several clues throughout the opening section here about the level of irony and farce we’re suppose to be reading into this novel.
Specifically we are at “Moo U”, which is obviously not it’s real name, but we go with it. This is a very mid-1990s novel about life on a midwestern college campus. “From the outside it was clear that the building known generally as “Old Meats” had eased under the hegemony of horticulture department.”
0 kommentar(er)
