My first Jane Smiley novel. She and Ruth Ozeki are kindred spirits for sure. But My Year of Meats was better paced; this one dragged in places and there were a few characters I never could keep straight because there were so many storylines bouncing around. Most of them came together satisfactorily, but I can think of 3 or 4 that could have been eliminated within endangering the overall coherence of the plot...which, by the way, centers on the eccentric personalities of professors, administrators, staff, and students at an agriculturally focused Midwestern university. So it's quite the setting.

Cheap therapy for anyone in academia. A funny and refreshing look at life on campus from a faculty/staff perspective.

Hysterically funny, and accurate, portrayal of faculty, staff, students, and tangentially aligned folks at a Midwestern land-grant university and their trials and tribulations. Smiley has so exactly captured faculty politics, the top concerns of undergrad students, and various states of various love relationships. Her simple and clear phrasing makes the book imminently readable; it is not dumbed-down prose, simply straightforward. Holds up well, though written decades ago. I’d read this years before, and just reread it. It’s especially funny and engrossing since I went to grad school at, and worked at, a Midwestern land-grant university!

Between reading Moo and DeLillo's White Noise, I feel like I just went back to college! I enjoyed Moo and was surprised at how long it took me to read it -- nearly three days, with two days of solid reading. Smiley populates this book with a university microcosm. At first, it's a little confusing, but it doesn't take long until you are into the swing of it and know these people (just like college).

The book takes place during two semesters in the 1989-90 school year - when businesses are downsizing and even the state funded education system must trim. The book explores the implications of businesses funding "scientific" study and reminds us of the importance of the Land Grant Act. I think we too often relate a college education to a business degree and forget that there are many other reasons to attend college. I graduated from the University of New Hampshire, also a Land Grant College, where in my second year I had three Animal Science majors for housemates. Moo happily brought me back to this time in my life.

As an Extension guy, I loved this book. Jane Smiley is an exceptional author.

I read this several years ago, before I worked in higher education. I had, then, just come out of my undergraduate years, and thought this a brilliant critique on the underbelly of the ivory tower. Nearly three decades later, now in a career in the tower, this holds up on a re-read. Poignant in just the right spots and measure, it is also often ridiculous in the best way - just as higher ed itself if ridiculous. Absolutely brilliant.

Sometimes after finishing a novel, one must take a deep breath and reminisce about the times that were had, the feelings that were felt, and the memories that were created and shared. Some novels are so impactful that they become an indelible part of your soul, as if you had a novel sized hole lingering in you body, waiting to be patched by a inexorable yet righteous force.

After reading the last word of Moo, I can unequivocally say that the hole in my soul still needs to be filled by a more worthy member. If you ever encounter this strange cow in a pasture, I recommend mooving on to greater and better literary endeavors.

Moo… more like Boo.

These days I am working mainly on the group of print books that I picked out to reread while I was sorting through my library. Some I don't remember anything about, although I have read all of them in the past. I'm concentrating on them because I want the shelf space and I know some will be taking a short hike to the library donation bin.

I've read at least one other by Jane Smiley and I remember I bought this one because of how much I enjoyed the other. And name recognition, of course. That's important at a used book sale!

But I can't put up with this book this time around. Too many characters, too much going on and yet at the same time nothing happening just yet. I've puttered along for almost 100 pages and the third time I had to stop and think 'Wait, Who Are These People' was once too often.

I remember thinking it was pretty cool back about 20 years ago when I first read it, but obviously my tastes have changed since then. Off to the library it goes!

DNF around page 100.

** 3.5 stars **

Smiley's comic novel Moo follows an ambitious cast of characters who are all connected to the Midwestern, land-grant Moo University. The author's insights about the interconnectedness of higher education, politics, and private corporations remain as insightful in 2020 as when the novel was first published in 1995. Because I work in academia myself, I found several of Smiley's characters to be relatable types and her portrayal of this university's problems and eccentricities to be humorous, yet spot-on. I think readers who work in or adjacent to the academy will most likely find this novel funny; other readers may not get the jokes.

Although I understand that Smiley is painting an overall portrait of university life, the cast of characters--much like Earl Butz the hog--is large and unwieldy. I could see this book being nicely adapted for a TV series, but as a novel, we don't spend enough time with many of the characters to a) remember and differentiate everyone, b) understand their backstory and motivations, and c) feel invested in what ultimately becomes of them. Had the list of characters been cut in half, I think these goals could have been achieved.

Ultimately, if you work or have worked in higher ed and if you've enjoyed other academic/campus novels in the vein of Richard Russo's Straight Man and Julie Schumacher's Dear Committee Members, then you will probably enjoy this novel.

What a delightful read! Hilarious, poignant, great characters. This is a satire of Midwest American academia, written (and set) around the time of the fall of the Soviet empire.

My response to Smiley's novel was contradictory. On the one hand, I liked her ambitious attempt at depicting the entirety of a college campus, covering students, faculty, and administration. On the other hand, there were just too many characters for any of them to be sufficiently developed. I could never keep straight the four female students sharing the dorm, in part due to the cutesy rhyming-names thing, but mostly due to the fact that Smiley didn't do a great job of distinguishing them from one another. Similarly, several of the professors tended to blend together into a mishmash of motivations and relationships.

Similarly, I liked the farcical tone (similar to I Am Charlotte Simmons), but felt that Smiley didn't take it far enough. It seems like there can be no middle ground when dealing with farce, and Smiley tried to find one, grounding some situations is realism, while piling on ridiculous coincidence so as to get to the finale where everything comes together.

It's not as though this is a terrible book, and there were parts I enjoyed immensely. Smiley does a wonderful job of capturing certain snapshots of the college experience, and when she hits one of those moments, the book roars to life. But in between those moments, I had to struggle to remain interested and contextualized.

State university life on a small scale. Should have been entitled “Oink” given that the principal animal character is a hog. Unlikely faculty and hookups. Bizarre wedding against rational odds. Somewhat of a struggle to read to the end.