This has been sitting on my shelf since grad school when a professor recommended it. Being very familiar with the Ames Iowa of the 90s, and the University there where my grandpa was a professor, this setting is nostalgic and hilarious.
This really has an undercurrent of wink wink nudge nudge to anyone in academia. Very wry and funny. There are a lot of characters to keep track of which wasn't easy, but this delivers a great picture of satirical academic life. ( )

funniest book about academe I've ever heard - on trip to and from Columbia Gorge ( )

Hilarious! ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. The vast panorama of characters is constantly giving us different points of view, keeping the story well-paced and interesting.

I liked Smiley's cynicism about the bureaucratic workings of a state university. Yes, higher education is a noble thing, but the purveyors of a higher education are often far less noble. In fact, they can be crass, vindictive and money-grubbing with few compunctions about throwing higher education under the bus in favor of the institution.

Smiley used two symbols that I loved. The first was the secret garden hidden in the very heart of campus which was destroyed. The second was poor old Earl Butz, the forgotten hog in the heart of campus, whose unforeseen and untimely appearance forced irrevocable changes to the university itself. ( )

I liked the concept - 1990 culture of a small liberal arts college. But the actual book was more about mediocre descriptions of relationships, and not enough about the college details. And the big pig - WTF? ( )