"DELECTABLY ENTERTAINING. . . . An uproariously funny and at the same time hauntingly melancholy portrait of a college community in the Midwest." --The New York Times Nestled in the heart of the Midwest, amid cow pastures and waving fields of grain, lies Moo University, a distinguished institution devoted to the art and science of agriculture. Here, among an atmosphere rife with devious plots, mischievous intrigue, lusty liaisons, and academic one-upmanship, Chairman X of the Horticulture Department harbors a secret fantasy to kill the dean; Mrs. Walker, the provost's right hand and campus information queen, knows where all the bodies are buried; Timothy Nonahan, associate professor of English, advocates eavesdropping for his creative writing assignments; and Bob Carlson, a sophomore, feeds and maintains his only friend: a hog named Earl Butz. In this wonderfully written and masterfully plotted novel, Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres, offers us a wickedly funny comedy that is also a darkly poignant slice of life. "FAST, HILARIOUS, AND HEARTBREAKING . . . Not for a minute does Moo lose its perfect satiric pitch or its pacing. . . . Don't skip a page, don't skip a paragraph. It's going to be on the final." --People "SMART, IRREVERENT, AND WICKEDLY TENDER . . . Moo suggests a mix of Tom Wolfe's wit and John Updike's satiny reach . . . Engaging." --The Boston Globe "ENTERTAINING . . . Displays a wicked wit and an unerring eye for American foibles . . . Stuffed with memorable characters, sparkling with deliciously acid humor, Moo is a rare bird in today's literary menagerie: a great read that also makes you think." --Chicago Sun-Times From the Trade Paperback edition. Smiley, now acclaimed for her portrayals of the dark side of America's pastoral ideal (a Pulitzer for A Thousand Acres, LJ 10/1/91, plus her wonderful novellas, Ordinary Love and Good Will, LJ 9/15/89), returns with a sharp-edged spoof of academic life. "Moo U" is a large, Midwestern "ag and tech" school where campus politics and intrigue rule. Smiley has assembled a large, colorful group of characters who will be familiar to ivory tower dwellers: the campus secretary who controls personnel and paper flow, the faculty who plot for power and revenge, plus the dining hall worker, the students, and the administrators, all with their own agendas. While entertaining and on-target as parody, Moo is not as riveting as Smiley's best work. This should do well and be very popular with higher education insiders. --Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. */Starred Review*/ In a surprising departure from her previous novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, bleak farm drama A Thousand Acres (1991), Smiley proves equally adept at comedy in a very funny, warmhearted send-up of academia. There's trouble brewing on the campus of a large midwestern agricultural college nicknamed Moo U. A mysterious, jug-eared billionaire with shady business connections has generously funded hotshot Professor Lionel Gift's research project; Gift subsequently produces a favorable report on the value of strip-mining the Costa Rican rain forest. The most powerful woman on campus, the provost's secretary, who never lets the university's priorities interfere with her own (she regularly siphons off funds from the athletic department and sends them to the library), leaks the report to left-wing horticulturist Chairman X. In the resulting firestorm, tempers flare, demonstrations erupt, the media descends, and the horticulturist attempts to strangle the dean. Smiley's great gift here is the way she gently skewers any number of easily recognizable campus fixtures (the grant-seeking egomaniac, bewildered freshmen, the obsessive researcher) while never failing to show their humanity--she gives everyone a voice. And, much like a magical Shakespearean comedy, the novel's brilliant closing scenes feature a series of reconciliations: people elope, marry, move in together, make peace. In Smiley's world, people are sometimes greedy, foolish, and muddleheaded, but they are most often triumphant. Joanne Wilkinson “Delectably entertaining.... An uproariously funny and at the same time hauntingly melancholy portrait of a college community in the Midwest.” — The New York Times “Fast, hilarious, and heartbreaking...Not for a minute does Moo lose its perfect satiric pitch or its pacing. . . . Don't skip a page, don't skip a paragraph. It's going to be on the final.” — People “Smart, irreverent, and wickedly tender.... Moo suggests a mix of Tom Wolfe's wit and John Updike's satiny reach.... Engaging.” — The Boston Globe From the Trade Paperback edition. ABLY ENTERTAINING. . . . An uproariously funny and at the same time hauntingly melancholy portrait of a college community in the Midwest." --The New York Times Nestled in the heart of the Midwest, amid cow pastures and waving fields of grain, lies Moo University, a disti