Moo

Rating:
Summary: OK, but not up to her others
Review: Moo is the story of life at the typical Midwestern land grant institution (I believe it is based on Iowa State University, where Jane Smiley taught before she moved to California to raise horses). Most of the usual college campus actors are featured in some way - students, greedy administrators, la-la-land professsors, cafeteria staff and the secretary that really runs the show. There is kind of a plot that focuses on the economics professor's plans to destroy the last remaining Costa Rican cloud forest in order to mine gold with money provided by a megacorporation. I found this a hard book to read because of all the characters and the subplots. Only towards the end was I able to keep them all straight. Also, about the time I was enjoying the tale of, say, the freshmen girls, the book moved onto some other character. Jane tries to interject sex in an unconvincing way. While I finally got into this book enough to enjoy it, I didn't think it was up to her other standards either in terms of character development or the way she illustrates the very basic emotions that are involved in family and friend situations. I hope that horses don't consume Jane Smiley and we see more from her.

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: Interesting....but no more,
Review: Moo was certainly an interesting read, but it fell far short of the "hilarious" label given to it by many. Smiley creates some fairly interesting (there's that word again) characters and does a decent job of together weaving several plot lines, but if you go in to this with great expectations then prepare to be disappointed.

While Moo does hit a few softballs in satirizing the land grant university, there's not that much new here.

One thing that Moo does accomplish (albeit unintentionally) is to provide an excellent example of the skewed sense of reality held by most who toil in academia. Why would this be unintentional? Because it is not the warped viewpoint of a character in the novel that is most interesting, but rather that of the author herself. The best satirical criticism here hits an unintended target.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Review: Smiley has written a good but not great academic novel. Moo bears some disturbing parallels to David Lodge's much better academic trilogy (Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work)---Lodge's work was written earlier and is frankly much better.
The characters, setting and plot should be familiar to anyone who has spent time in a university (the newly minted professor struggling to get a grip, the jaded older faculty, the endless and pointless committee meetings, the tensions between administrators and faculty and so on). The one fairly original aspect of Moo is Smiley's inclusion of undergraduate characters who are usually completely ignored in academic novels. Mary, an 18 yr old urban African American freshman put down in the middle of the cornfields is one of Smiley's best characters and I read the novel looking for her (alas, she is not a central character).
For Smiley fans (and I am one), the book is a disappointment (it can't compare to her fantastic epic, The Greenlanders) and for those who love academic novels, the book is only mildly good.

Rating:
Summary: A true-to-life college campus
Review:

Don't be fooled by the title of the book; a pig named Earl Butz (ring any bells?)--is the literal and physical focus of this book. Earl is stowed away in the geographic center of the campus, Moo University, and those moving around him (students, faculty, etc), oblivious to his existence, nevertheless move in rhythm to him. When Earl escapes during the demolition of his home and dies, the campus is so affected that his picture on the front page of the newspaper affects everyone's life.

Everyone will recognize some familiar characters in this book. There are the four freshman girls living together--Mary, Keri, Sherri and Dianne--each of whom is drastically different, but borrows the others' clothes anyway. Then there's Bob Carlson, who doesn't know how to socialize with anyone but Earl Butz. Gary has a crush on his roommate's girlfriend and eavesdrops whenever they fight. English professor Tim can't keep his attention focused on any one woman long enough to establish a real relationship. The secretary to the Provost doesn't hide the fact that she controls EVERYTHING on campus and off, including her girlfriend Martha. Economics professor Lionel Gift believes he's God's gift to Costa Rica, as well as the rest of the world, often dropping the fact that he's in "some Rolodex" at the New York Times to impress people. One farmer, a frequent visitor to the provost, believes the FBI, the CIA and the big ag companies are out to get him, so he wears a bulletproof vest to protect himself.

These characters, weaved in and out of each other's lives, bring a rural campus to life with scandal, betrayal, but most of all, humor. Though Moo's huge cast can be confusing at times, it's a must-read for anyone in or graduated from college that never fails to bring a smile to your face.

Rating:
Summary: not impressed
Review: As others have mentioned "Moo" has an unwieldy cast of characters which make following each subplot difficult, as characters often fail to appear again for hundreds of pages. Though some characters are noteworthy - particular the pig Earl Butz and Smiley's grasp of adolescent dialogue is flawless, I wound up skimming until I reached the climax. Personally, I much prefer the author's less bulky books such as "Barn Blind" and "A Thousand Acres" not because I don't enjoy reading complexly plotted novels, but because I feel that if you have the knack of creating memorable characters, they deserve more "screen time" so to speak.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book!
Review: This is probably my all-time favorite book, and I reread it at least once a year...I am sad every time it ends! Smiley has written a hysterical satire of life among students, professors, and administrators on a Midwester college campus; as someone who's recently graduated from a school similar to Moo U., I can certainly relate. Characters are well, developed, quirky, and eccentric. They are somewhat exaggerated, but easy to imagine and relate to. And don't listen to any reviewers who tell you the cast is too large...the book was easy to follow.

The first time I read it, I found it a little slow to get into, but I persisted and encourage others to do the same. I would love to see another book with the same characters; I miss them and want to learn more!!!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting....but no more,
Review: Moo was certainly an interesting read, but it fell far short of the "hilarious" label given to it by many. Smiley creates some fairly interesting (there's that word again) characters and does a decent job of together weaving several plot lines, but if you go in to this with great expectations then prepare to be disappointed.

While Moo does hit a few softballs in satirizing the land grant university, there's not that much new here.

One thing that Moo does accomplish (albeit unintentionally) is to provide an excellent example of the skewed sense of reality held by most who toil in academia. Why would this be unintentional? Because it is not the warped viewpoint of a character in the novel that is most interesting, but rather that of the author herself. The best satirical criticism here hits an unintended target.

Rating:
Summary: Quirky and Adorable
Review: The characters in her book are quirky, adorable, and a pleasure to read about. The way she develops her characters and have them interact with one another is marvelous. Her sarcastic wit made me laugh out loud several times during reading. I thoroughly loved this book.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and satirical
Review: How can the same author who wrote Thousand Acres flip into the voice behind Moo?? What a phenomenal talent...
Moo is a tour de force of satire on life at an agricultural university (known as Moo U., in the parlance) that scathingly leaves no cow pie unkicked. Smiley uses the hypocrisy, prejudice, and self-importance of the characters as a metaphor for our entire society. No one who reads this outrageous novel will ever forget Earl Butz, the Herculean pig that becomes such an obsession for more than one of the quirky characters that sometimes teeter on the edge of caricature. That quality and the fact that the whole charade seemed to go on about 100 pages too long is the only reason for 4 stars instead of 5.
A great book, nontheless.