I initially started to read a hard copy of this book (actual paper!) but gave up in hopeless confusion because I could not keep the characters straight and it didn't seem to make any sense.

Then I got the e-book version in which I can do a word search and so remind myself of which of the similarly-named roommates or the endless numbers of professors and other university hangers-on is the centrepiece of any particular chapter. And I liked it so much better after that!

This is a tidily plotted and pretty hilarious story about an indeterminate and undistinguished institution of secondary learning somewhere in the mid-western United States. It is a microcosm of petty grievances, self-aggrandizing blowhards of dubious intelligence and nefarious doings of all kinds. Just like the real thing, I'm quite sure.

I had no idea what I was getting into as I picked out this book, keeping in mind that my English professor recommended it after hearing I accepted a teaching position at a small high school in South Dakota.

Let's begin small. If you are looking for a picturesque novel about the adventures and misadventures of small-town life, this is not it. If you are, however, looking for the perfect mix of egotistical university professors (and staff) and a variety of diverse students surrounded by slow, typical, Midwest farmers and underpinned by a budget-cutting government, you're in for a treat.

The political (and personal) battles of the professors (and Mrs. Lorraine Walker) as they grapple for grants, power, revenge, and even love comprise a good portion of the novel, kept alive and with good pacing by intrusions of the personal lives of 6-8 students. Each chapter is different, focusing on different people and their different issues, but always displaying an intricate connection between everything. The pig, the crazed farmer, Dubuque House, Chairman X, Mrs. Walker, all appear unconnected, but all are impacted by the actions of the others, even those others whom no one takes any notice of. Much like real life.

Now, a bit of warning ⚠️: if you're like me and you prefer sex to be eluded to rather than explicitly described, skip the 2nd half of chapter 20. All you need to really know out of that portion is that Ivar and Helen are a thing and Mrs. Walker is a lesbian. Oh, and Monohan gets with Cecilia. (And really, who NEEDS to know that 2 people are getting physical through a description of their sex??

What a very funny book. Complicated and very lengthy cast of characters, so I did occasionally have to check back to see who was sleeping with whom, or trying to get tenure or whatever. But that is exactly what it is like in a university, so many people, so many committees, so many forms, so many who think they are in power and are not. So many who manage to get to the conferences in the nice places, to deliver papers that add nothing to the sum of human knowledge....all too true.

I like Jane Smiley and this is a funny academic farce, which is what my working life is, when it's not a stupid academic farce.

Honestly, one of the best books I have read in years, from one of our greatest living authors. A sprawling, often hilarious tale of university politics. (Hmmm, wonder why that appeals?)

This book had a lot of potential. A great storyline; an interesting setting; a talented writer. But, it was entirely disappointing. The problem is with the characters: NO ONE IS INTERESTING. And yet, the book contains detail after detail about the characters. (There are a lot of them.) One could anticipate this from the book's jacket: "Never raising her voice, giving everybody his or her (or its) due, Jane Smiley lets no one escape..." That is an understatement. Each character is just as dull as the next and yet their flawed humanity is somehow supposed to be funny?! "Moo" is choppy and uninspiring.

Moo U. is a land-grant university in one of the mid-Western states. The author presents us with a huge cast of characters: students, academics and bureaucrats. In this farcical send up of academia- albeit agricultural academia rather than the ivory tower sort- everyone is avid for something, be it sex, tenure, grades, money, power, food, or a way out of the life they have. The living metaphor of this greed sits at the very center of the campus, physically and symbolically: a huge hog named Earl Butz (this is set in the Reagan era, btw). He is an experiment, the focus of a study to see how large a pig can get if his needs are constantly met. His sole job is to eat, and he does it well. His existence is a secret from all but a few; no one suspects that inside the concrete walls of an old, unused building is an avid consumer, any more than the longings of the people are visible to their peers.

Smiley takes on racism, sexism, and classism as well as the academic life. This is a gentle satire. Pretty much all of her myriad characters are treated as flawed humans rather than evil doers or other caricatures. It’s like these people are friends and family of the author and she looks on them with smiling indulgence. While not uproarious as the blurb on the cover said, it was amusing and engaging.

Jane Smiley is such a sharp student of human nature. This book is so hilarious and filled with so many wonderful characters, including a very lovable 700 pound hog named Earl Butz. Can't believe I had never read this book, which I picked up at a Library sale. Long live Libraries!

Moo is a slice-of-life satire about a distinguished agricultural college (“Moo University”) in the Midwest and all its faculty members, workers, and students (and one very fat pig). You can tell that Smiley, who herself was an English professor at a rural state university, knows her material, and she lampoons academia well.

The book is hard to get into at first – it’s very intellectual, with the type of humor where you say, “that’s pretty funny,” without actually smiling or laughing. I was worried I’d made a terrible mistake, but the colorful characters and slow momentum of a story eventually caught on. Moo is helped by having very short chapters, and while the language can’t be called beautiful, the prose is something for you to slow down and sink your teeth in.

Moo reminds me a bit of Catch-22 in its tone and bite (the victim in this case is academia rather than the military), and probably because Catch-22 is also one of my favorite books, I ended up liking it a decent amount. It’s not as good as A Thousand Acres, but it certainly was a-MOO-sing!

Tongue-in-cheek, right? Poking fun at university and farm life, right? Well, it wasn't so bad, it had its moments, I'm glad I was there but now I'm out.

A deeply enjoyable diorama of a Midwestern university over a year. I very much enjoyed the wry humor which was suffused throughout with genuine affection and a honest reality that raises this book over other campus genre novels. A very fun read and highly recommended.

How I love this book!

I have been meaning to read it since it was first published, but never got around to it until a few days ago when I saw in featured at my nearby branch library. I also remember when it came out: the uproar it caused (as I remember it.) I think even the Chronicle of Higher Education wrote a review or an article. Certain academics, it seems, were sure she was writing about them. I mean, who would want to admit being Elaine Dobbs-Jellinek? I worked at Ohio, State for 17 years, and the book certainly sounded liked the College of the Arts. (I think Elaine had moved on from Moo U to OSU at that point). I believe you may have had to have worked in academia to fully appreciate Moo! I'd love to hear Camille Paglia's take on it. Junk Bonds indeed!