A. R. Gurney (1930–2017)

Pretty good book about a tenured MIT assistant professor in the Humanities Dept. Academic politics, extremely witty. Takes place during Watergate. Packed with literary references and name-dropping. Affairs are had but mostly not discussed in the text, except one ridiculous bit where the professor has an affair with an young Asian women which was completely unbelieveable to me. The rest of the book was very believable. I felt like Gurney's publisher told him it needs more sex or something, so show more he went back and put some in. A fun read especially if you were in Boston at that time.

Note added: My wife read it and thought the crazy sex bit was all just a fantasy he made up for why he never got the writing done that the department was pressuring him to publish. Read in that way it is hilarious and believeable.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. There was this weird anti-semitism which was hilarious. It read like a guy complaining about Jews being better than him at everything and he resented it. Being a Jew-phile myself, I thought it was basically true and funny, but it certainly did rely on certain stereotypical ideas about Jews. Basically that Jews are intellectual and possibly taking over, at least in the Humanities at MIT.

The ending was a surprise, I'll give him that, but it seemed like a cheap shot. Sort of a one-liner after a lot of build up. I won't give it away.

I would say it's a must-read for anyone who went to MIT in the 70s.

It seemed odd that no one was gay. show less

The love story between Andrew and Melissa is heartbreaking in that it spanned for decades, with timing troubles plaguing the couple (when one was ready, the other was in a relationship or not ready to settle down), and that it evades the happy endings that I hold so dear. Their love seems painstakingly real, captured in correspondence, leaving the reader to assume what happens in between (a very nice touch).

A comedy of manners billed as a sequel to "Merchant of Venice." Portia’s marriage to Bassanio, portrayed here as an Irish-Catholic jock, hasn’t gotten off the ground, so to speak. The union hasn’t been consummated yet. Bassanio has been too busy, shooting hoops and drinking a few brews with the boys.
And Antonio, the merchant himself, is played as a mournful, opera-loving homosexual who pines hopelessly for Bassanio.

An interesting idea poorly executed. The dialogue and the set up comes off like the high school play done by the Young Democrats. It spells everything out, explains its own jokes, and just basically gets by on a clever concept. The metaphors, however, are twisted way too far, and eventually the entire thing falls apart. This could have used several more revisions before it went public.