Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 3, 1993 TAG: 9301030205
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by GEOFF SEAMANS staff
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ENTER THE HALL OF MIRRORS WITH `BOOK'
BOOK, A NOVEL. By Robert Grudin. Random House. $19.In his book "Book," Robert Grudin - an English professor at the University of Oregon - satirizes with wicked wit the various fashionable and politically correct literary theories, such as deconstructionism, of contemporary academe.
I do not pretend to comprehend much about these theories, perhaps because they are in fact incomprehensible, any more than I pretend to comprehend all the levels and every allusion in "Book."
Yet - and all this I take to be part of Grudin's point, too - "Book" is accessible to readers who are not English professors. Its characters are vivid. It has a story, and that story (a mystery of sorts) is compelling.
Grudin introduces us to a new crime, akin to homicide in its evil. It is the crime of libricide, or the (in this case, attempted) killing of a book.
Adam Snell of the English department at the University of Washagon is about to undergo "tenure review." His prospects, alas, are dim. Unlike his professorial colleagues, he has published a real book, a work of the imagination. But that counts against rather than for him, and he has failed to publish the obscure, jargon-laden papers that would place him in a school of literary theory and thus win him more departmental allies.
For someone at Washagon, the doubtfulness of Snell's career prospects isn't enough. For someone, Snell's life - or at least that of his book - must be snuffed out.
The self-referential title of "Book" is only the first of several mirrors held up by Grudin to caricature his targets. Entering the world of "Book" is like entering a houseful of mirrors. And like a house of mirrors, it's fun.
Geoff Seamans writes editorials for this newspaper.