Legal Commentary

It is possible that you are at that point in the semester, or in your career, when you are in need of academic satire in literary form.  Although many would recommend Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, it has scenes of gratuitous cruelty in the beginning chapters that I can never get past. [I feel the same way about certain episodes of Seinfeld involving George or most episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm.] It does contain a brilliant description of a hangover, though. Some would recommend Jane Smiley's Moo, which has a brilliant opening chapter but doesn't follow through.  Instead, I prefer David Lodge's Changing Places, which has a brilliant scene about a "rising star" English professor whose tenure prospects are scuttled when he admits during a drinking game at a faculty party that he's never read Hamlet.  I also love Richard Russo's hilarious Straight Man, which captures the inanity of (certain) faculty meetings perfectly.