Campusland, by Scott Johnston

If the insanity of political correctness, social justice battles, and sexual politics on colleges campuses today weren't so consequential, it would be laughable.  Oh wait, it is laughable!  Absurd!  And Scott Johnston describes and personalizes campus culture in Campusland: A Novel.  Set on an elite northeastern campus suspiciously similar to Yale, where Johnston attended and later taught, Campusland skewers the current atmosphere of higher education.  It's a novel, but oh so real.

English prof Eph Russell is up for tenure, but that's in peril after he becomes a target of the campus social justice warriors.  They are unhappy that his course on 19th century American literature doesn't feature authors of color, but does feature a book full of racist language (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).  If the campus activists accusing him of racism isn't enough, one of his students makes a pass at him, which he rebuffs, then accuses him of sexual assault.  Meanwhile, the president of the university is trying to balance his appeasement of the aggrieved minority groups and his traditional donor base while protecting the university's vaunted reputation.

This is the story of Eph, but it's also the story of Title IX, of the hashtag culture, of social media.  It's a story of much that is wrong with colleges today.  So check it out, get a good laugh, but then pay more attention to what's going on around the country.  Johnston mashes it all together on one campus in one academic year, so the absurdity of it all comes to an uber-absurd head.  But the elements of the story are taken from real-life stories from a campus near you.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!