I've been going through a lot of stress at work lately, so I decided it was the perfect time to read this novel by one of Iowa's great authors. This book is absolutely hysterical. Set at Moo University, there is endless intrigue between faculty members, lots of back-stabbing, and (my favorite) a secretary who knows everything about everyone on campus and manipulates budgets to suit her needs. Then there's Earl Butz, the pampered hog who has his own staff member caring for him. Then there is the dicey research/financial venture in Costa Rica. Yes, it's an accurate--and hysterical--portrayal of life at a university.

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.

DNF. I want to read this eventually but right now I'm just not in the mood for it.

Wow, can I give less than 1 star? This is going in to that rare list of "books I cannot even get through." It makes me very sad that this woman can get published (and apparently won an award at some point in her life!) and I have friends who can actually WRITE who cannot. Imagine if the author of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" had written his 150 pages of character development, but hadn't actually been able to make you care about any of the characters. Or, in fact, been able to convince you read past the first 50 pages. And trust me, I was bored enough at work that night that I would have read ANYTHING, but it was pretty much sheer horror that got me that far in to the book. To be fair, it wasn't entirely Ms. Smiley's writing that made this book a complete dud. Her editor should be shot too. How do you not catch the run-on sentence that goes for NINE lines? Especially when it happens overandoverandoverandoverand... Seriously, what were they on to miss that? Oh, and to say nothing of the basic spelling errors all through the book...
Okay, I think I have made my point, no? On to bigger and better things.