Finished The Laughter a few days ago and it kicked my ass. Kicked it in the right direction. As a white guy floating around on an entitled hovercraft of assumptions, the despicable narrator brings attention to things that a lot of white guys accept and expect.
If this book is shelved next to Stoner in the academic novel category, it’s got 100 more years of perspective on stodgy English professors.
Sonora Jha, a professor at Seattle U, sticks to her claim that The Laughter is completely fictional. But her book is fueled by reality.
About 20 years ago I was working for a contractor who was working on a Madison Park home owned by an English professor from Seattle U --I’ll call him Dr Ivy League-- he was in the room for less than 10 minutes, but that was more than enough time to see, hear and feel how entitled he was, even his son was walking the walk, talking the talk, like his dad. Dr IL is still a crusty white tenured professor at SU teaching a syllabus overflowing with crusty white dead guys. I cannot help but see that guy as the narrator in Jha’s novel.
word
words
now I can read it again
slowing down to pay attention
to all the little things I missed
the first time around
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