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rageofachilles's review
4.0
I’m a big fan of campus novels, the best being Russo’s Straight Man. Hynes’ The Lecturer Tale comes in at a distant second. That’s not saying anything bad about Hynes—it is just that Straight Man is that good.
The novel, TLT, follows a lecturer after his three year contract is up at a major institution. As he is about to be kicked out of married housing, a freak accident causes him to lose a finger, and when it is reattached, he discovers that he has the ability to impose his will (assuming he touches the person with his finger). What follows is a story that navigates all aspects of the university life (and English departments more specifically): division of labor, the way literature positions are more prominent than composition, departmental politics, theory vs literature, discussion of canon, bureaucracy of power, gender and academia, and, most importantly in my estimation, the perils of deconstruction.
I recommend this book to campus novel lovers and anyone with a passing interest in English studies.
The novel, TLT, follows a lecturer after his three year contract is up at a major institution. As he is about to be kicked out of married housing, a freak accident causes him to lose a finger, and when it is reattached, he discovers that he has the ability to impose his will (assuming he touches the person with his finger). What follows is a story that navigates all aspects of the university life (and English departments more specifically): division of labor, the way literature positions are more prominent than composition, departmental politics, theory vs literature, discussion of canon, bureaucracy of power, gender and academia, and, most importantly in my estimation, the perils of deconstruction.
I recommend this book to campus novel lovers and anyone with a passing interest in English studies.
bookscatteandme's review
2.0
This is one of the worst books I've read in the past several years. It starts out alright, but by the time you finish the first third of the book, the problems become very, very obvious. Aside from the rampant misogyny and the random (at best) plot, it's also clear that the author really thought he had a hit here. You can smell his smugness almost a mile away. The only reason that I didn't give it one star was that the beginning was okay, and that it wasn't so terrible that I just couldn't finish it.
emily_stimmel's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Antisemitism, and Racism
snowmaiden's review
3.0
This book gets three stars from me because some parts deserved five stars and some only deserved one. As someone who was getting a master's in English at the turn of the millennium, I can say with authority that Hynes really understands what life in an English department was like at that time. His narrator has many insightful things to say about "the culture wars," as people back then called the academic debate between theorists and traditionalists. (I know people today still use that term, but it means something entirely different now. Or maybe it is the same culture war, only it's spilled out of the ivory tower of academia and into the real world, where it’s no less obnoxious but has more real consequences.)
I also really loved the second chapter, which charts the academic history of the main character, Nelson Humboldt. Like all too many book lovers in that era, he got into literary studies because of his love of reading and writing and then gradually discovered that those interests could only be a detriment to his future as an academic. (I've been there, Nelson, which is why my only academic activity these days is writing Goodreads reviews.)
But on the other hand, as I told my husband approximately 542,000 times during the month it took me to slog through this book, Nelson is nothing but a dweeb, a wuss, and a milquetoast. Granted the power to make people do what he wants with the touch of a finger, Nelson has a clear choice: use the power selfishly, to get exactly what he wants out of life, or altruistically, to make people around him achieve their highest potential and work towards the common good.
Nelson does neither. Instead, he dithers around with no real plan, using his finger for only the dumbest things (like getting 20% off on a new computer) and getting no closer to either of his very modest goals: to keep his job on campus and get tenure for his best friend and officemate Vita. (Even with the ability to make anybody on earth do exactly what he wants just by touching them, these are the only goals he can think of, and he can't even make them happen. See why I think he's a dweeb?)
Even worse, Nelson keeps accidentally harming people with his powers. If he’s touching someone with his finger as they talk, any vague wish he expresses for them will come true. Several times he figures out that he has done this unintentionally, but he makes no effort to reverse the situation, even when he easily could. (C’mon, Nelson, if you’re gonna be a wuss, at least try to be a kind and compassionate one, ok?)
Although he's supposedly the driving force behind all the crazy events happening on campus, Nelson actually does very little to change them, and those "hilarious" things (which often struck me as nothing more than mean-spirited practical jokes) may very well have happened even without his magical abilities. Definitely the big twist ending (which may have seemed satirical 20 years ago but now seems entirely plausible) has nothing to do with him at all. And so this book ended with a dull whimper, and I was very glad to take it back to the library. (If only Nelson Humboldt had arrived with his magical finger to make me do it a few weeks earlier!) (But who are we kidding? He wouldn’t have made the effort.)
I also really loved the second chapter, which charts the academic history of the main character, Nelson Humboldt. Like all too many book lovers in that era, he got into literary studies because of his love of reading and writing and then gradually discovered that those interests could only be a detriment to his future as an academic. (I've been there, Nelson, which is why my only academic activity these days is writing Goodreads reviews.)
But on the other hand, as I told my husband approximately 542,000 times during the month it took me to slog through this book, Nelson is nothing but a dweeb, a wuss, and a milquetoast. Granted the power to make people do what he wants with the touch of a finger, Nelson has a clear choice: use the power selfishly, to get exactly what he wants out of life, or altruistically, to make people around him achieve their highest potential and work towards the common good.
Nelson does neither. Instead, he dithers around with no real plan, using his finger for only the dumbest things (like getting 20% off on a new computer) and getting no closer to either of his very modest goals: to keep his job on campus and get tenure for his best friend and officemate Vita. (Even with the ability to make anybody on earth do exactly what he wants just by touching them, these are the only goals he can think of, and he can't even make them happen. See why I think he's a dweeb?)
Even worse, Nelson keeps accidentally harming people with his powers. If he’s touching someone with his finger as they talk, any vague wish he expresses for them will come true. Several times he figures out that he has done this unintentionally, but he makes no effort to reverse the situation, even when he easily could. (C’mon, Nelson, if you’re gonna be a wuss, at least try to be a kind and compassionate one, ok?)
Although he's supposedly the driving force behind all the crazy events happening on campus, Nelson actually does very little to change them, and those "hilarious" things (which often struck me as nothing more than mean-spirited practical jokes) may very well have happened even without his magical abilities. Definitely the big twist ending (which may have seemed satirical 20 years ago but now seems entirely plausible) has nothing to do with him at all. And so this book ended with a dull whimper, and I was very glad to take it back to the library. (If only Nelson Humboldt had arrived with his magical finger to make me do it a few weeks earlier!) (But who are we kidding? He wouldn’t have made the effort.)
rhubarb1608's review
1.5
I didn't know what to expect from this book, and the first two-thirds were good. Hynes is a talented writer who effortlessly weaves together literary prose styles and references and sets forth a cast of characters with such realism it is impossible not to be invested in them. That being said, the last third descended into a maelstrom of insanity, and I left it feeling bewildered, annoyed, and disappointed. The playful jabs at oversexualized academia were amusing and entertaining, but on the whole, not really worth it.
munchin's review
4.0
Just pitch-perfect until the manic, jarring, unbelievable climax where it lost me a little bit. I got what the author was doing, I think, but I didn't care for it much.
livrekitty's review
4.0
A strange tale but full of characters I recognize from my very own English department.
glitterandtwang's review
4.0
I am sort of amazed that I read this and enjoyed it as a sophomore in college, considering how much funnier it is to me now that I've been through two rounds of graduate school and seen first-hand how some dysfunctional departments inspire the kind of cutthroat competition Nelson Humboldt's English department deals with. Still a good read 15 years (ugh) later, though.