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A review by sde
The Devil and Webster by Jean Hanff Korelitz
3.0
I love small liberal arts colleges. I went to one. My daughter just started at one. They are one of the few places where you are allowed to be totally intellectual, think about ideas, and not constantly be asked, "Why are you interested in this nerdy, esoteric subject?" But I still found the parts of this book that poke fun at small liberal arts colleges to be quite funny and on point.
I greatly preferred the beginning of this book, which was lighter and more satirical than later chapters. The first few paragraphs outlined a crisis that is now happening at my alma mater about whether trans men should be allowed to live in women's dorms! It then mentioned the fact the being pro-choice is the most important thing for students to support if they are considered liberal, something my daughter is grappling with right now on her campus! The poking fun of the atmosphere on liberal arts campuses was great fun.
The book isn't really a spoof, though, it is a serious story about stuff that was happening on campus and mostly how it affected one woman, President Naomi Roth. Students begin protesting the fact that a black professor is denied tenure. The school has completely solid reasons for denying tenure - most schools would have denied him - but they can't talk about it because of the confidentiality of the tenure process. I understand this is a fairly common issue on campus. A similar case is happening at my daughter's college. I was talking to the son of a former college president (whose school was mentioned fleetingly in the book!), and he said this happened several times to his father. He couldn't say anything for legal reasons, but it was stressful not to be able to defend the school.
As the book moved into the more serious second half, I enjoyed it less. I knew that bad stuff was going to keep happening, and I liked the character of President Roth and wanted to close my eyes. (Although I also wanted to know what happened!) I could really relate to her. Not that I could ever be a college president, but the fact that she was somewhat talented at a few things, which lead to her doing a job where she had to do things she knew nothing about and felt awkward dealing with - such as schmoozing with rich people, talking about sports, and dressing well.
I found it sad that few people came to President Roth when she was dealing with the situation on campus, but she didn't reach out either. (This, too, is like me.) Where were all the other female college presidents who had supported her at her inauguration?
There were a few plot lines that I sort of knew where they would go pretty early in the book. I wasn't sure if this was on purpose - what the author intended as foreshadowing - or not. In any case, I knew that they wouldn't be resolved in a happy way, so it made the reading stressful.
I am familiar with the setting of this book, the Pioneer Valley (aka Happy Valley) of Massachusetts, so the author's references to the area were fun for me.
I did enjoy the book, and now want to read the author's earlier book about Naomi Roth, The Sabbathday River, so I can learn more of her backstory.
I greatly preferred the beginning of this book, which was lighter and more satirical than later chapters. The first few paragraphs outlined a crisis that is now happening at my alma mater about whether trans men should be allowed to live in women's dorms! It then mentioned the fact the being pro-choice is the most important thing for students to support if they are considered liberal, something my daughter is grappling with right now on her campus! The poking fun of the atmosphere on liberal arts campuses was great fun.
The book isn't really a spoof, though, it is a serious story about stuff that was happening on campus and mostly how it affected one woman, President Naomi Roth. Students begin protesting the fact that a black professor is denied tenure. The school has completely solid reasons for denying tenure - most schools would have denied him - but they can't talk about it because of the confidentiality of the tenure process. I understand this is a fairly common issue on campus. A similar case is happening at my daughter's college. I was talking to the son of a former college president (whose school was mentioned fleetingly in the book!), and he said this happened several times to his father. He couldn't say anything for legal reasons, but it was stressful not to be able to defend the school.
As the book moved into the more serious second half, I enjoyed it less. I knew that bad stuff was going to keep happening, and I liked the character of President Roth and wanted to close my eyes. (Although I also wanted to know what happened!) I could really relate to her. Not that I could ever be a college president, but the fact that she was somewhat talented at a few things, which lead to her doing a job where she had to do things she knew nothing about and felt awkward dealing with - such as schmoozing with rich people, talking about sports, and dressing well.
I found it sad that few people came to President Roth when she was dealing with the situation on campus, but she didn't reach out either. (This, too, is like me.) Where were all the other female college presidents who had supported her at her inauguration?
There were a few plot lines that I sort of knew where they would go pretty early in the book. I wasn't sure if this was on purpose - what the author intended as foreshadowing - or not. In any case, I knew that they wouldn't be resolved in a happy way, so it made the reading stressful.
I am familiar with the setting of this book, the Pioneer Valley (aka Happy Valley) of Massachusetts, so the author's references to the area were fun for me.
I did enjoy the book, and now want to read the author's earlier book about Naomi Roth, The Sabbathday River, so I can learn more of her backstory.