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A review by saroz162
Death in a Tenured Position by Amanda Cross
1.0
I read this book as part of a book group. We were charged with reading something fictional "about academia," and in fairness, the conversation we had as a result of reading the novel was quite strong, especially in considering how the role of women in academia has changed (or not changed) in the intervening 40 years between when the book is set and now. We also laughed a lot, too, because it's really a dreadfully, awfully written book.
Every single character is a type. The protagonist, Kate, is a privileged, married woman with limitless freedom and seemingly no end of money, who is both a respected academic and a keen detective. She is never wrong, and she has almost no self awareness. (She's the sort of character you could only love if you were exactly like her, and troublingly, a little basic research reveals more than a few similarities between Kate and the author who created her.) Her former classmate, whom she is called in to assist but doesn't really like, is snooty and career-driven. Her former lover, who is also the classmate's ex-husband, is a hippieish veteran with a guitar and a suitably hippie name ("Moon"). The bigwig tenured faculty member is overweight, red-faced, and suitably parochial. The lesbians who live in the local commune all believe in separatist politics, refer to each other as "sisters," and keep feminine clothing for when they need their driver's license photo taken because of course they do. It goes on, and on, and on. Nobody acts like a real, full-blooded person; everyone's just there to fulfill their little role.
Worse, there's almost no actual mystery, because Kate does so little for herself. She talks to people, certainly, but they tend to bring her her clues on a platter. Toward the end of the book, she makes some absolutely incredible mental leaps based solely on the contents of books she's seen lying around, which requires the reader to either be equally familiar with those works or very, very easily impressed. That type of story - the mystery where the reader is kept from knowing vital information until the reveal - can work when you have really interesting characters or really high tension. Death in a Tenured Position provides neither of these. In fact, I'm not sure what it does provide, aside from 150 pages of text.
I did like the dog, though.
Every single character is a type. The protagonist, Kate, is a privileged, married woman with limitless freedom and seemingly no end of money, who is both a respected academic and a keen detective. She is never wrong, and she has almost no self awareness. (She's the sort of character you could only love if you were exactly like her, and troublingly, a little basic research reveals more than a few similarities between Kate and the author who created her.) Her former classmate, whom she is called in to assist but doesn't really like, is snooty and career-driven. Her former lover, who is also the classmate's ex-husband, is a hippieish veteran with a guitar and a suitably hippie name ("Moon"). The bigwig tenured faculty member is overweight, red-faced, and suitably parochial. The lesbians who live in the local commune all believe in separatist politics, refer to each other as "sisters," and keep feminine clothing for when they need their driver's license photo taken because of course they do. It goes on, and on, and on. Nobody acts like a real, full-blooded person; everyone's just there to fulfill their little role.
Worse, there's almost no actual mystery, because Kate does so little for herself. She talks to people, certainly, but they tend to bring her her clues on a platter. Toward the end of the book, she makes some absolutely incredible mental leaps based solely on the contents of books she's seen lying around, which requires the reader to either be equally familiar with those works or very, very easily impressed. That type of story - the mystery where the reader is kept from knowing vital information until the reveal - can work when you have really interesting characters or really high tension. Death in a Tenured Position provides neither of these. In fact, I'm not sure what it does provide, aside from 150 pages of text.
I did like the dog, though.