I am adding some books from decades ago, that I am now just getting around to giving away. I first read Moo, when I bought it in my College book store in the Southwest. I would go onto live 15 years in the Midwest and still to this day call it my "home" no matter where my physical address may be. I loved Moo and it's cast of crazy characters.

I'm a great lover of academic satire. Letting Go (Roth), Beet (Latham), Straight Man (Russo) are all on the top of my list. So I really wanted to love this book. It IS well written, there are some gems of paragraphs. But at the same time, the book was distressing, too. I think that the subject matter is just a little too close to home for me, right now. Moo was originally published in 1995 and the economic crises of the 2000's were a long way off, so I can't blame Smiley for the imaginative scenarios that have really come to pass in my time. Perhaps what's actually happened is that some administrators read this book as some sort of a handbook on crisis management instead of the satire that it's meant to be.

A great parody/documentary of life at a big Mid-West ag school. Particularly good look at university life, with Smiley weaving together many different story's into one brilliant ending.

Born in the age of irony, MOO, is an academic satire that hits a little close to home for those that play in the halls of higher education. Although written in the mid-90s, the sections on gender politics, Big Ag/Pharma, and tensions in the heartland still read as fresh and relevant today as I'm sure they did at publication. Although, perhaps now it's just more depressing than tongue and cheek.

Set during the academic year of 1989-1990, the term is not going well at "Moo U", a generic Midwestern agricultural school. Smiley introduces readers to an entire cast of characters - from faculty, to administration, to students, and a very well-kept hog - that orbit this insular aggie university. With extreme budget cuts set by the out-of-touch governor; McDonald's has taken over the meals for the school, faculty must clean their own offices, and the collegiate atmosphere of the campus is tested to the breaking point. Smiley hurls the reader into the petty squabbles and eccentricities of the microcosm of Moo U. With almost Dickensian levels of wit, everything from the names of the characters to the caricatures of their personas is dialed in to a specific time and place that will add layers of delight for those that are old enough to remember the 90s.

Told with the same sort of bizarre flourishes as The Hudsucker Proxy, MOO, is an experiment in societal commentary and inner reflection that often sticks the landing but misses just as many times. Like, the cringe-inducing moment when students are called "customers", that Old Meats - a crumbling building at the heart of campus - was a slaughterhouse, and when the practical economics of a farming community come up against the theoretical, the corporate, and the greedy. But that's the nature of comedic work, is it not? Or maybe we are due for a MOO 2.0.

Read with the University of Oklahoma Press staff bookclub.

It's interesting too far, but too many damn characters to keep track of. Seriously, there are like 10 students and 12 faculty of Moo University. 4 of the students who live together are named Mary, Sheri, Terry and Diane and there are 2 Harstads and at least 1 person is a Dean of the University and another is a professor named Dean. ARGH! I'm wondering if the confusion was intentional? It's starting to get good though. I'm enjoying the intrigue of the gold mine in Costa Rica and the university politics around it and Chairman X.

Jane Smiley won a Pulitzer for A Thousand Acres, so that is probably the one I should have read, This novel centers around Moo University, an agricultural school, with a cast of at least 30 faculty, students and farmers. It's a little hard to keep track of who's who, but I did like the pig and the theme of piggishness.

This story provides a portrait, through the viewpoints of many characters, of a large Midwest agricultural university circa 1990. Although several references in Moo place it outside of Iowa, I'd guess it's based on Iowa State. The plot and character development are not strong points, in large part because there are too many stories and too many people.
The strength of the book is found in individual chapters and sentences which satirize the varied activities and agendas at a large university. Many perceptive and well crafted observations about campus life and the longings of different members of the community. I particularly liked Smiley's many memoranda issued by the university bureaucracy. One of the main characters is a provost, but I still have no idea exactly what a provost's job duties are. There is much to enjoy in this book

The braided stories of a group of students, teachers, and administrators over the course of the 1989-1990 semesters at Moo University, an agricultural college in the Midwest. I was encouraged to read this novel because I was looking for something light and humorous - the phrases “delectably entertaining” and “uproariously funny” even appear on the book jacket, so how could I go wrong? Ladies and gentlemen, reviewers and critics lie. Now, if I were a member of the academia, perhaps this story would have spoken to me more. As it was, however, I was bored to tears until the action picked up at about 78% completion, according to my Kindle. Also, the book contains dozens of characters who are introduced in a way that makes it impossible to recall their various backgrounds or connections, particularly as multiple chapters go by before the characters are woven back into the story. A cast of characters page at the beginning of the book would have been helpful. I blame this experience on the author, as I never have issues tracking the multitude of characters in the Russian Classics. Finally, any interesting aspects of the story were simply overshadowed by the sprawling nature of the thing as a whole. Was there anything redeeming about the novel? Earl Butz, the pig…and, the author even had to ruin that for me.

Cutting to the chase, I would not recommend this novel to anyone other than those who have worked in a university.

In the author’s own words: “I call my novel a slippery-slope academic novel, in which academia is not cut off from the world, but is constantly contaminating the world, is constantly both re-creating the world in its own image and recreating the world.”

The story is like a sitcom, sort of funny, sort of poignant. Moo University is located in the heart of agricultural country, and we get something of an overview of the university with a look at various staff and students. A cornucopia of flamboyant characters with their own stories bumps against one another in a style not unlike today's reality. We can sample the contrast and parallel of pairs as we follow the many events. Such as:

Two secretaries, one of whom holds the fate of the university in her subtle control.

Two buildings, one seemingly abandoned on campus but sheltering a hog the size of a Volkswagen. The other, a barn hiding the secret invention of a farmer, which could revolutionize farming.

An unprincipled fund raiser. Money for the university, never mind the threat to the survival of an old-growth forest. A highly principled horticulture professor, steeped in environmentalism, who will do anything to protect the forest.

A professor who wrote a novel and struggles to find a worthy topic for his next project. A student who struggles to become a novelist.

We look into the lives of many as a crisis erupts and grows to explosive proportions. In the final moments, different characters find their salvation in unexpected ways.

While this is not a quick read, it is deep and requires a good memory of who is who and what is what. Even in the confusion, the episodes are gripping, and we become attached or repelled by the different actors. I liked the powerful secretary, the hog and his caretaker, the paranoid farmer, the fiery environmentalist, and the aspiring novelists. Written in the 1990s, the story is still timely, and I can see why Smiley is a writer of many awards. The extreme foibles of the various participants in this story are so like what we see in today's world.

More like 3.5 stars.
A good, entertaining book that suffered from one important flaw — Smiley introduces many, many characters early on, then spins out each of their tales with panache — but I for one lost track of who was who and never really got back on track. It didn’t really matter that much but a lot of the tight plotting and clever interplay between everyone’s different motivations and personalities suffered. I think if she had written this book later in her career, she would’ve provided more concrete fenceposts for the reader and/or more “sticky” reminders of who was who and where their motivations lay. Some of the characters are indelible, but others just sort of waft through the academic setting as vague-ish archetypes, undermining their potency and robbing the story of its inventive plotting. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s hilarious — a trenchant humor underpins the whole story, where everyone has deep motivations but somewhat silly issues, until they become important later on. Overall, the novel is a wry commentary on academia and the absurdity of the human condition, and might be even better with either a second reading or a chart to help remember who is who and what they want. That’s a bit too much work for a novel that lacks the gravitas of Moby Dick or War and Peace or something. It’s a bit of a shame, really, because the book made me feel a little dumb as a reader, and I suspect it’s way better than I’m giving it credit for. Still, sometimes the author needs to provide at least a little hand-holding.

Grade: B+

After reading 'Straight Man' I was in the mood for another satire of academic life, so I can't help but compare Russo's book to Smiley's. Moo was funny enough, enjoyable enough but so inferior to 'Straight Man' I never could get into it. It's very satirical, above the fray, ironic--you just never come to care about any of the characters. Whereas 'Straight Man' has heart, as all good comedies should.

You know you're an academic when... great book--totally hits upon the notion of a university as a place of business...