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seclement's review against another edition
4.0
I rarely read fiction, but I picked this up randomly on a visit to the US, in a very nice bookshop in Ann Arbor. It's not the sort of thing that I would normally read, but I found this collection of short stories a pleasant distraction from my thesis. The characters are largely unlikeable - with the notable exception of the cat in the first story - but they are also entirely realistic, which worked well to offset the implausibility of the horror aspects of the story. I thought Hynes portrayed your typical postmodernist academic quite accurately, so there were many funny moments for anyone who has every known an idealistic, paternalistic anthropologist or an intelligent but emotionally stunted feminist historian.
micaelabrody's review against another edition
2.5
i was torn between a 2 and a 3 here. count it as a 2.5.
the first story was pretty disappointing to me, in that i felt it did not take advantage of the horrors of academia well. i'm not in that world myself but i am adjacent, through family members and friends. ooh an insecure guy is cheating on his more successful wife and his situation is being manifested in his poltergeist cat. yawn. it dovetailed with a particularly busy time in my professional life, but it STILL took me an eon to get through the first story.
the second and third stories were much more engaging. a colonialist patronizing asshole who views all culture except his own as primitive, gets caught up in the very rituals he's trying to exploit for his own purposes? nice. and the last one, which actually uses the academic setting the best in my opinion, confronts the power imbalance of gender among colleagues, and the yes, terror of the tenure track, when publishing is a tenuous and fragile measure of job security. (plus i'm a sucker for when things tie together and you weren't expecting it. coming to a climax at the very conference from story 2 is great.)
i realized halfway through i forgot to check the copyright date. i think that i give it slightly more credit than i originally did (that's the extra .5) because quite frankly it's old, and at least in my observation, the interest in discussing racial, economic, and gender disparity in the academy was just not as present (not that it didn't bear talking about, though!) back in the 90s. (feel free to correct me, i was a very small child watching my mom at the time.)
still, academia is a world teeming with horror metaphors, from budget cuts to departments, to big universities (like my alma mater) eating up small colleges, to the complex and thorny dynamics of writing papers together - nevermind the relationships with students, who are nearly entire absent in this book*. the second and third stories utilize these more, but the first really didn't. it might as well have been about two authors, or two scientists... or any situation in which a husband and wife might work in the same field.
<i>the chair</i> on netflix was excellent, and got the seal of approval from people who actually work in academia. it wasn't a horror story, but i thought of it many times while reading this. academia ITSELF can be the building block for a story, not just a hollow setting for one bc most people don't know the ins and outs of it. but it comes down to this: even the stories i liked in here just didn't grab me, which may be genre or writing style or simply age. it's too bad, because i think there's fertile ground for the next attempt at this kind of book.
*i know many high-up professors at some schools basically don't interact with students, but even THAT is another avenue for horror, the ghost in the halls kind of thing. just saying
the first story was pretty disappointing to me, in that i felt it did not take advantage of the horrors of academia well. i'm not in that world myself but i am adjacent, through family members and friends. ooh an insecure guy is cheating on his more successful wife and his situation is being manifested in his poltergeist cat. yawn. it dovetailed with a particularly busy time in my professional life, but it STILL took me an eon to get through the first story.
the second and third stories were much more engaging. a colonialist patronizing asshole who views all culture except his own as primitive, gets caught up in the very rituals he's trying to exploit for his own purposes? nice. and the last one, which actually uses the academic setting the best in my opinion, confronts the power imbalance of gender among colleagues, and the yes, terror of the tenure track, when publishing is a tenuous and fragile measure of job security. (plus i'm a sucker for when things tie together and you weren't expecting it. coming to a climax at the very conference from story 2 is great.)
i realized halfway through i forgot to check the copyright date. i think that i give it slightly more credit than i originally did (that's the extra .5) because quite frankly it's old, and at least in my observation, the interest in discussing racial, economic, and gender disparity in the academy was just not as present (not that it didn't bear talking about, though!) back in the 90s. (feel free to correct me, i was a very small child watching my mom at the time.)
still, academia is a world teeming with horror metaphors, from budget cuts to departments, to big universities (like my alma mater) eating up small colleges, to the complex and thorny dynamics of writing papers together - nevermind the relationships with students, who are nearly entire absent in this book*. the second and third stories utilize these more, but the first really didn't. it might as well have been about two authors, or two scientists... or any situation in which a husband and wife might work in the same field.
<i>the chair</i> on netflix was excellent, and got the seal of approval from people who actually work in academia. it wasn't a horror story, but i thought of it many times while reading this. academia ITSELF can be the building block for a story, not just a hollow setting for one bc most people don't know the ins and outs of it. but it comes down to this: even the stories i liked in here just didn't grab me, which may be genre or writing style or simply age. it's too bad, because i think there's fertile ground for the next attempt at this kind of book.
*i know many high-up professors at some schools basically don't interact with students, but even THAT is another avenue for horror, the ghost in the halls kind of thing. just saying
jamesvw's review against another edition
3.0
I almost stopped after the first novella, which I found to be complete dreck (as my grandfather would say). Mean-spirited, contrived and poorly conceived, I had to force myself into the second book. That one, titled 99, was much better - not fantastic, but intriguing in its critique of anthropology and is reminiscent of The Lottery and Borges' The Gospel According to Mark. The third book, Casting the Runes, is actually quite good, a pastiche as Hynes puts it of a story from M.R. James. It uses the all too common problem of advisers terrorizing their grad students - having their academic lives in their hands - and spins out a horror story from there. Clever. So if I have to recommend, I'd say check this book out of the library and stick to the third book, read the second one if you have a spare hour or two.
citruslounge's review against another edition
4.0
THE FIRST STORY WITH THE CAT IS SO TERRIFYING. I liked how they all wove together.
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
2.0
I take great exception to the blurb saying that these stories have the wit of David Lodge. Lodge is WAY better than this.
eberico's review against another edition
3.0
Embarrassing story: sometime after reading this book of academia-related short stories, I was at an English department picnic with my then-boyfriend, and became convinced that a bearded picnic attendee was the author of this book. Needless to say, he was not, but that didn't stop me from asking, and being mortified after.
coralrose's review against another edition
4.0
I went home last night, swung by the library and picked up my holds, among which was this hilarious gem. It was a mixture of horror and academic satire, and I read it all in one gulp, finishing well before bed. Each story's academics are obsessed with their academic lives, unaware of the supernatural that moves just out of their sight.
sdbecque's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked these stories, the second two more than the first one. It's much in the same vein as "The Lecturer's Tale" in fact one of the characters from that story makes a brief unrelated appearance. Same kind of crazy, gothic academic craziness.
sdiaz's review
2.0
Clearly the author has a bone to pick with academics as he has made all of them pretty unlikable, of course that would be fine if that somehow added a layer to the stories but to be honest it rarely did. The only exception and the story which I liked the most was the case of the third story where at least the setting of academic conferences made the whole thing slightly distinct. The fact that the third story also had a couple of call backs to the first stories helped flesh out the world. Unfortunately the first two stories were uninspired, and as mentioned all the characters were so unlikable that having to spend time with them was kind of bothersome.
spygrl1's review
4.0
After being so disappointed by Kings of Infinite Space, I hesitated to read this one. I think it was the cat that provided the extra push. This is much more my cup of tea than Kings -- the supernatural/horrific elements aren't overexplained and therefore don't invite excess scrutiny. I think for anyone who works in academia the blend of Lovecraftian horror and the horrors of colleagues, administrators, students, and the battle for tenure will seem natural.
And in the end, the cat wins!
And in the end, the cat wins!
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