Academic Novels

I enjoy reading novels which contain something I recognize. An example would be Search: A Novel by Michelle Huneven in which I enjoy reading a plot and characters within the familiar ground of a Unitarian Universalist congregation even though I am a lapsed UU.

And now that I've been retired since 2018, I'm also a lapsed academic. As such, I enjoy reading fiction in which the story unfolds in an academic setting. The best two academic novels I've found so far are Moo by Jane Smiley and Straight Man by Richard Russo. The porting of Straight Man into an eight-episode television mini-series on AMC called Lucky Hank inspired me to reread Straight Man. 

A second reading of Straight Man was even more enjoyable than the first. Now having watched the miniseries had an impact on my reading. For example, both the show and the book are narrated by the title character, named William Henry Devereaux, Jr, played in the show by Bob Odenkirk. During the second reading, my mind kept hearing the narrator's words in Odenkirk's voice.

Another impact of having watched the show just before my second reading of the novel was that I spent a lot of time thinking about what was added and subtracted for the show. Hank's wife has a much bigger role in the show. The show devotes an episode to a highly cringe-worthy faculty supper which did not appear in the book. Grabbing a goose by the neck in the novel changed to shadow boxing the bird. An alcoholic faculty member changed gender. The time scale was different in that the book's events took place over a few days, and the show took place over a number of months.

But the heart of the book and the show remains examination of a man's midlife crisis, that same man's never-resolved issues with his father, the overimportance many academics place upon their scholastic niche and their own work within that niche, and the mediocrity which pervades much of academia. And a quote variously attributed to Kissinger, Parkinson, Sayre and others, "The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low," came to mind repeatedly as I experienced both the book and the show. 

Never in my career did I battle a goose. Nor was I burdened with Daddy issues. Other than that, the book and the show brought back memories of many incidents from my academic career. I think many academics would recognize themselves or their colleagues should they either read the book or watch the show.