Moo

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and even endearing
Review: <Moo> succeeds as a send-up of life at a large midwestern agricultural university. At its core is a motley group of distinct individuals with very diverse goals and motivations, including the lusty yet dispassionate creative writing professor/novelist Tim Monahan; the blindly ambitious and ingratiating fundraiser, Elaine Dobbs-Jellinek; Elaine's ex-husband, the self-absorbed Dean Jellinek, who is obsessed with notions of cloned livestock and calf-free lactation; the pale twin towers of academic success, Ivar and Nils Harstad; and many, many, many others.

Almost too many others. The author's portaiture of the girls of Dubuque House is largely uninspiring and detracts from the more interesting subplots. Smiley's attempt at tongue-in-cheek critique of campus racial relations via freshman student Mary is weak at best.

Still, a handful of the personalities will keep you turning the pages. The strong points are Mrs. Walker, the provost's secretary and the true power-wielder; and hotheaded idealist Chairman X of the horticulture department, who passionately rants against all forms of corporate domination and antagonizes more than one of his colleagues to comic ends.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: Like her other writings, this novel is without anything remarkable or memorable. It's just fair. As an academic satire, it's mildly comic and somewhat sharp. However, Smiley CLEARLY is LOST when it comes to writing about students. She is witty and intelligent when examining teachers, administrators, secretaries ,and the intrigues among these parties. It becomes somewhat embarassing to read, though, when she tries to get into the minds of young people. These sections read like an old codger trying to prove she's "with it." Avoid this book. read K. Amis, R. Davies, D. Lodge, M. McCarthy or R. Jarrell if you're looking for academic satire.

Rating:
Summary: Moo is for you
Review: This book is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. Jane Smiley's language and insight are both delightful and at times disconcerting. I plan to read all of this author's books, after having read Moo.

Rating:
Summary: Funniest if you know the University....
Review: While I can imagine this novel was pretty good to most people. I personally couldn't stop laughing because I went to the state university where she taught and it certainly could be considered a thinly veiled acount of certain instructors. While not her overall best work it certainly does strike a humorous chord.

Rating:
Summary: It's just fine!
Review: I have to agree with those who say that only a person within acadamia could appreciate this book. I swear I go to Moo U. I go to a mid-western big ten agricultural school and it even has the same initials. MSU. I may not identify with every single character but I would say that Jane Smiley did a great job of pegging the ones that I did recognize. It is definately not a book for people who can't slow down and appreciate the intricacies of this book. Don't just focus on the plot. Focus on her language and the unique personalities of each character. There are some phrases in the book that I will never forget. Especially the way she describes the midwest sky at dawn in the beginning of the book. How true.

Rating:
Summary: Smiley's revenge
Review: One never knows what to expect from a Jane Smiley novel. She has yet to cross the same territory in any two books. This novel, a satirical look at the usual suspects one encounters on a state university campus, is crowded with characters but short on plot. It reads more like a collection of vignettes which ultimate add up to a comic big picture of the campus and its inhabitants. The style is deliberately artificial and quite fine once one is adjusted to it; nicely suited to a piece about academics.

Some of the characters are real gems. Many of us who have been associated with academia will recognize, all too painfully, others - if not ourselves - that we have known in these portraits. Exaggerated but never quite over the top (except perhaps in the wildly imaginative sections dealing with Earl Butz, prize hog and great character) this book is a darkly comic portrait of the extremes of personality that florish in the somewhat isolated atmosphere of a large state ag college.

Very pleasant reading for those of us who have been there. Since Smiley has as well, we wonder, is this her revenge on peers and administrators for all those years of teaching? It's great stuff in any case.

Rating:
Summary: Dark and witty, but not what you might expect
Review: Originally I was perplexed by the number of unhappy reviewers of this book, which I definitely enjoyed, but I think the reason is that Moo is not what the dust jacket makes it out to be. There is plenty of humor in this book, but it's mostly dry wit and wry situational irony-- there's not much laugh-out-loud material. In fact, some of the story lines (Dean and Joy's, for example) are downright depressing. The small army of charcacters takes some getting used to, but I didn't have trouble keeping track of them once they were established. It's true that some of them were not as well-developed as they could have been, but had they been, the book probably would have been another 300 pages. I think Smiley's intention was to give the widest, not deepest, possible portrait of university life. The fact that some of the characters are not fully developed helps her achieve that goal--at a big university, those not in one's immediate social circle are by necessity often perceived as "types" or character sketches, because there's no way you can fully understand the 35,000 other people around you. Keeping the characters lightly defined makes them both funnier and more authentic, in my opinion.

As it is, I think Smiley keeps the focus on the right characters. I understand the reviewers who wanted to see more of the students rather than the administrators and faculty, especially since I am a college student myself and could probably relate to their experiences more than those of the professors. But like I said-- I think Smiley's going for breadth, not depth. That said, I found some of the storyline resolutions unsatisfying. Some characters don't even seem to get a resolution in their stories, they just drop out of the novel 30 pages before it ends. Even so, that didn't stop me from enjoying the rest of the book.

Moo is a witty and spot-on satire of university life, but it is neither a lighthearted piece of comedic fluff nor an example of Great Literature. Those looking for either of the above, or a repeat of what Smiley did in A Thousand Acres, will probably not enjoy Moo. Those willing to take it for what it is probably will.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing tale of university life.
Review: It takes patience to read Jane Smiley's MOO, but if you have the patience you will be aptly rewarded. MOO takes the reader on a different kind of journey, one through the minds of all the facets of university life--from administrators to students to the community and even to the lab subjects (Earl the pig). The jumping around from points of view did get a little confusing at times; a character map or chart would have been helpful. I would have liked to see more about the students, also. However, anyone who has been to or even grown up around a college would find this tale amusing; Smiley's wit and storytelling borders on that of Heller's Catch-22 style. It does take some work to plow through the first few chapters, but once you get used to the unique voice, the book becomes more enthralling. I believe this book would appeal to those who appreciate the playing with form and the value of dry wit.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: For anyone who has been to college, and worked for one, this novel is a right-on comedy fest... I laughed so hard because she nailed the common uncommon characters from college life... The land grant college has a culture both interesting and entertaining that serve for the perfect setting for this novel. I'm just waiting for the movie!

Rating:
Summary: Great potential, but little reward
Review: "Moo" begins very well, but it stretches itself too far in an attempt to cover an Altmanesque cast of main characters - only about half of which are interesting. So much time is spent on character development that a story never seems to evolve.