The Lecturer's Tale is a fine book on its own merits, but it especially tickles the fancy of an ex-academic like me. In outing the freaks and foibles of a university English department, Hynes could almost be quoting verbatim from my own experiences in graduate school. From tenure-track politics to the sanctioned bigotry of white male bashing, he kicks every brick in the ivory tower. Some critics have complained that all the characters are caricatures; obviously they haven't spent much time on campus lately.
Among my favorite passages is a description of an entrenched professor's subterranean office, its corners mounded with yellowing stacks of papers, its bookshelves crammed with orange-backed Penguins — inexpensive editions of the classics published by Penguin Books, which are easily distinguishable by the orange on their covers.
I think we've all got a few Penguins in our closets. I know all you recovering English majors do. Dust one off and read it just for fun. Then impress your friends with a scholarly analysis of the ways in which Friends is actually a postmodern retelling of the story. . . . Or don't.