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A review by angelal
The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat by Dave Tomar
4.0
The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat, is Dave Tomar's memoir about his years spent writing papers for college kids at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. The book fluctuates between a personal memoir and an indictment of contemporary higher education.
This book is highly disturbing and oddly uplifting at the same time. Tomar speaks for the brilliant, cynical, and disaffected of his generation. He candidly shares his own frustrations and highlights the miseries of the university system while simultaneously telling a story of personal growth. This book is both a warning of the degradation of our higher education system and a coming of age story.
It's true that Tomar rambles at times, and that his frustration, drug use, and overall angst will turn many readers against him. But Tomar speaks with an honesty I find remarkable, and he reminds me of all the people I've met who were utterly brilliant but too angry with the world to make a difference. If Tomar comes across as a whiny, unreliable narrator it is largely because we underestimate his feelings of loneliness and alienation and overlook how much he grows and changes throughout the course of the book.
Honest, sarcastic, and subtly sweet, Tomar's memoir reveals the sweeping inadequacies of our education system, yet the author's own growth and realizations point out the times when our education system works out after all. Even if it was in ways we never intended.
This book is highly disturbing and oddly uplifting at the same time. Tomar speaks for the brilliant, cynical, and disaffected of his generation. He candidly shares his own frustrations and highlights the miseries of the university system while simultaneously telling a story of personal growth. This book is both a warning of the degradation of our higher education system and a coming of age story.
It's true that Tomar rambles at times, and that his frustration, drug use, and overall angst will turn many readers against him. But Tomar speaks with an honesty I find remarkable, and he reminds me of all the people I've met who were utterly brilliant but too angry with the world to make a difference. If Tomar comes across as a whiny, unreliable narrator it is largely because we underestimate his feelings of loneliness and alienation and overlook how much he grows and changes throughout the course of the book.
Honest, sarcastic, and subtly sweet, Tomar's memoir reveals the sweeping inadequacies of our education system, yet the author's own growth and realizations point out the times when our education system works out after all. Even if it was in ways we never intended.