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3.0 out of 5 stars
Death in a Tenured Position, Mar 6 2003
This would be a strange mystery if it didn't have such an obvious agenda: to probe at Harvard's sexism towards women, specifically its failure (as of the late 70s) to accept women as tenured profs in the stuffy old-boys English Department. Everything about the book, then, is geared to attack this unbending attitude: the dialogue (lots of witty remarks, asides, quick jibes that poke holes in the massive structure of hypocrisy and prejudice that looms like a big chauvinist-pig mountain), the characters--lots of frustrated women, be they stoic professionals just trying to make it by playing the game in a so-called Man's World, or the real rebels: feminists gathering their anger together to fight the established order; plus, of course, many narrow-minded men, profs and students alike who either actively block women from success at Harvard, or at best, sell soft sexism without even realizing how ingrained and foolish their attitude is; even the solution to the puzzling murder, which speaks to the damage done on a personal level when a lone woman, picked for her docility, finds she is ill-prepared to be the Jackie Robinson of Harvard. Instead, she becomes a murder victim.If you commit to this read, be prepared to witness Harvard's English Department at its most revolting. I would even venture to say that the book is so locked into its agenda, that two things happen: the filter feels too narrow, and no matter the importance of the message, as mysteries go, this one really feeds you one thin dimension in order to support that message (I found I wanted to stop reading about Harvard as soon as possible, and was happy it was a short book); plus, in a story where everything has to do with sexism at Harvard--every page, every paragraph--I wouldn't say that's a guarantee for a classic mystery. The clues are eccentric and, in some crucial cases, quite literary, the motive is obviously going to relate to the main thrust of the book in some fashion (ie. if Harvard weren't like this, she wouldn't be dead--don't just blame the killer, blame the environment,and so forth), making the solution as predictable, with hindsight, as it may be surprising at first glance. You will have to decide if there has been an actual cheat. What the novel succeeds in doing is pointing out, and giving a human face to, a great inequity. The most striking quote from the book--the one that hits home for me--is the fact that women often make the best students at a place like Harvard, but then are not allowed to teach there (or weren't, when the book was written; I confess to not keeping up with Harvard's stubborn machinations in this area). Be aware that there are a few decent males in the novel, but in this arena, a decent male seems to mean one who doesn't think about anything too deeply or too much, and while taking things rather easily, is nevertheless handy for venting to, or leaning on, temporarily. Any male that opens his mouth with a serious opinion about anything, in Cross's mystery, is bound to incriminate Harvard, or men in general, and should have kept his mouth shut since puzzle-solver Kate Fansler always has the perfect retort, no matter how enigmatic or cerebral. A crime novel with an axe to grind; I liked being enlightened and shocked, I didn't think it was a mystery for the ages that hearkened back to the Great Detectives. No way.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
This one's okay, but far from her best, Oct 5 2001
Generally speaking, there are two sorts of mystery novels. One gives most of its attention to the complexities of the crime and the ingenuity of its solution. The other gives much more space to development of the characters and commentary on the setting. (Ideally -- in my opinion -- the perfect mystery, like those of Sue Grafton, gives nearly equal weight to both sides of the story.) "Amanda Cross" is the nom de plume of Dr. Carolyn G. Heilbrun, who, like her protagonist, Kate Fansler, is a university professor of English in New York. This time Kate is called to Cambridge to help Janet Mandelbaum, an old acquaintance (but not really a friend) who has been named the first tenured female professor of English at Harvard. As difficult as it may be to remember, this was a really big deal in 1978, as Harvard was almost the last hold-out among prestigious American universities to develop a coed faculty as well as admitting women to the student body. Kate's somewhat manipulative friend, Sylvia Farnum, is in the story, as is her own niece, Leighton, and her old semi-lover, the laid back Moon Mandelbaum (who was also married to the late Janet twenty years before). The plot all seems a bit disconnected, not to say haphazard, and the solution is a bit of a cop-out -- or maybe not, I haven't decided. But the author certainly does a job on Harvard! This isn't Amanda Cross's best work, but it's certainly worth reading.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Harvard grads may not like this one, Oct 2 2001
Generally speaking, there are two sorts of mystery novels. One gives most of its attention to the complexities of the crime and the ingenuity of its solution. The other gives much more space to development of the characters and commentary on the setting. (Ideally, in my opinion, the perfect mystery, like those of Sue Grafton, gives nearly equal weight to both threads of the story.) "Amanda Cross" is the nom de plume of Dr. Carolyn G. Heilbrun, who, like her protagonist, Kate Fansler, is a university professor of English in New York. This time Kate is called to Cambridge to help Janet Mandelbaum, an old acquaintance (but not really a friend) who has been named the first tenured female professor of English. As difficult as it may be to remember, this was a really big deal in 1978, as Harvard was almost the last hold-out among prestigious American universities to develop a coed faculty as well as admitting women to the student body. Kate's somewhat manipulative friend, Sylvia Farnum, is in the story, as is her own niece, Leighton, and her old semi-lover, the laid back Moon Mandelbaum (who was also married to the late Janet twenty years before). The plot all seems a bit disconnected, not to say haphazard, and the solution is a bit of a cop-out -- or maybe not, I haven't decided. But the author certainly does a job on Harvard! This isn't Amanda Cross's best work, but it's certainly worth reading.
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