Only a very good novel could survive a title this bad, and although Smiley is an intelligent, perceptive writer of several fine novels, this lengthy, goofball satirical romp weighted by multiple moral agendas sprawls alarmingly.
Set in an apparently student free Midwestern agriculture college called Moo University, it focuses on the staff, a caricatured troupe of idealistic eccentrics and grasping non idealists. They provide structure, the book being a series of instalments from their lives. Central to the action is Earl, a giant hog secretly living on campus. His duty is to eat himself to death. Far, far too long, yet somehow Smiley, through her superb irony, almost succeeds. Interestingly, it also gets progressively funnier.
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