A review by raf_frumkin
Big Time by Rus Bradburd

funny fast-paced

5.0

A goofy, irreverent and razor-sharp satire that will hit particularly hard for anyone who's had experience with the academy and sports supremacy in higher ed. With his extensive experience as both a college basketball coach and creative writing professor, Bradburd is precisely the person to write this book, and what a delight for the reader that he knows it! No one is spared in this surrealist reductio ad absurdum on the university-on-life-support that's revived via a corporate endorsement and Big Sports. Some particularly mordant highlights include the bylaws-obsessed, committee-forming tent city of laid-off English profs; the sophomore Croatian lineman who's also a poetic genius; the bloviating middle-aged revolutionary wannabe history prof whose horrible Volvo gets permanently impounded; and of course the hip young poetry prof who's stuck deciding between job security and the impending revolution. Like Richard Russo's "Straight Man" on several tabs of acid -- this book delivers with the laughs!