- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Soho Press (July 1 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1569471231
- ISBN-13: 978-1569471234
- Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13.2 x 1.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 304 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,610,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
John L'Heureux, who teaches creative writing at Stanford University, mines the ego-ridden and priority-skewed hallways of academia for the characters of his latest novel, which pokes a satirical finger at the lot of literature academics. The book is set in the English department of an unnamed California university. Among the many skewers that he sticks faculty members with is his categorization of them into two types, fools and Turks. Yet not all is lost when in sweeps a brilliant theorist and novelist who attempts--often successfully--to open some eyes, turn some heads, and, ultimately, change some behaviors.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
The absurdities of academe are a springboard for L'Heureux's 15th book, a wacky tale of lust, intellectual pretension, petty jealousy and divine intervention in the English department at a distinguished, but unnamed, Northern California University. When Olga Kominska, an enigmatic visiting professor, arrives to teach a seminar on Foucault and to begin work on her next novel, she encounters a department riven by sexual affairs, frustrated ambitions and bitter rivalries between young theorists and old formalists. Zachary Kurtz, the Machiavellian young Turk who lured Olga to the university, is plotting to overthrow the department of English and erect in its place a department of Theory and Discourse, where all texts will be studied "with absolute indifference to the author's reputation or the Western canon or the nature of writing itself." Yet the balance of power he seeks is in jeopardy: the ascendant chairman, Robbie Richter, who is Kurtz's pet, has a nervous breakdown; Tortorisi, a maladroit homunculus whom Kurtz despises, is writing a scathing roman a clef about the department; Peter Peeks, a lithe, vacuous surfer who swears that "Foucault is a god" is on the make among the faculty; and virtually every young professor on staff is desperate for a baby. Olga faces such challenges with a novelist's aplomb. Mary Poppins-like, swooping down from on high with a preternatural charm that makes her everyone's confidante, she sets out to answer the prayers of her colleagues; the results, of course, are drolly disastrous. L'Heureux (The Shrine at Altamira), who teaches English at Stanford, offers a witty new spin on Foucault's notion of the death of the author. Yet his tone throughout is one of arch silliness, and his interest in character is coldly satirical, lending this book a smugness that makes it far less engaging than the academic spoofs by David Lodge or Jane Smiley to which it will no doubt be compared.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Clever but boring...,
By
This review is from: Handmaid of Desire (Hardcover)
"The Handmade of Desire" by John L'Heureux is not written for the average reader who likes her tales to flow chronologically. One has to have some prior knowledge to follow his 'plot' which seems to be a send-up of deconstructionism. Olga Kominski, a supposedly brilliant feminist writer joins the faculty of an unnamed university. She is of vague origin, perhaps Eastern European given her Polish last name. Her origin would not be an issue but for her proclivity to speak with multiple accents. Olga has been hired as a member of the English faculty, and she is working on a book in her spare time. A professor of English writing a book is not unusual, but what is unusual is that as Olga writes, the characters in L'Heureux's book act in accordance with the characters in Olga's text. Is Olga merely recording the events she witnesses in the lives around her? Is she manipulating people so that they behave in ways she desires? Or, is she writing a script and through mysterious powers gaining the willing participation of the characters? One experiences a sensation akin to that felt when viewing the famous Escher print where the hand is drawing the hand is drawing the hand. Surely, the author is spoofing the reader. Most of the characters in Olga's book and L'Heureux's book are faculty peers or their spouses. All have secrets. All have problems. Unfortunately, the characters in both books are one-dimensional caricatures. I found it difficult to care about them. Unlike the characters in Jane Smiley's "Moo" some of whom still live in my mind, L'Heureux's characters are totally forgetable. The possible exception is Daryl the taxicab driver who seems to be "real."
2.0 out of 5 stars
Handmaid of Desire leaves much to be desired,
By Christine (Washington state) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Handmaid of Desire (Paperback)
This book does not come close to matching Russo's _The Straight Man_ or Jane Smiley's _Moo_ for wit and twists of fate regarding academia. Similarly, Carolyn Heilbrun's Amanda Cross mystery series presents a much more well-written perspective on being a female professor. Olga does not come close to matching the description of any of the colleagues I have met in over 20 years as an academic. I thoroughly enjoy any fiction which portrays professors with immense egos finally "getting their come-uppance" but read any other fiction about academe before spending time on this book.
1.0 out of 5 stars
self-aggrandising and tedious,
By A Customer
This review is from: Handmaid of Desire (Paperback)
Even though I read this book in a few short days I have to say it's not very good. It's entertaining I suppose, but the author is not terribly talented, and is simply re-hashing tired cliches of sex and ego in an incestuous academic setting. I would not recommend this book unless you're looking for a quick, shallow read.
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