novel recs?

[gwynnega]

Can anybody recommend some good novels set at universities? Two of my favorites are Tam Lin by Pamela Dean (which I've been rereading bits of this past week) and Braided Lives by Marge Piercy...

Comments

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

Gaudy Night Dorothy L Sayers

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

[gwynnega]

Oh, I adore Gaudy Night! Not familiar with the Josephine Tey book. Thanks!

[chalkhorse.livejournal.com]

The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand (and her novel Black Light as well).

[gwynnega]

Thanks!

[usedtobeljs]

David Lodge has written a lot (can't think of any names, though) from the professors' side; in a different if also satirical vein, Jane Smiley's Moo is set at an American Midwestern university very like Iowa State (where she taught for some years).

[gwynnega]

Thanks, Lori! I keep meaning to read David Lodge...

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

The best David Lodge academic satire is Small World -- I found the others sort of labored.

There's also Book, by Robert Grudin.

[gwynnega]

Thanks!!

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

David Lodge has some, no? I just can't think of the title(s) now. And isn't Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis? Which I haven't read though I should; it was recced to me by my favorite novelist, David Carkeet.

Oy, I should be packing.

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

Ha! I just posted the exact same comment as the one above!

[gwynnega]

Yep, Lucky Jim is. I read that one a few months back. Pretty sexist, but pretty funny at times!

Have a good trip!

[herself_nyc]

Zuleika Dobson!

Also … The War Between The Tates.

[gwynnega]

Oh wow, Zuleika Dobson looks awesome! How have I never read this book??

[herself_nyc]

It's lots of fun!
Make sure you get one that has the illustrations, because they are integral to the story.

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

Gaudy Night, by Dorothy Sayers, is set at a fictional Oxford college--though the main character has already left college long behind her. One of my all-time favorite books, for what that's worth. :)

I also love Anne of the Island, b/c I'm a big dork like that. I can't think of anything awesomer than Tam Lin, though.

(I love the internets. It brings me to people who've read Tam Lin w/o my having to cram it down their throats.)

[gwynnega]

Gaudy Night and Tam Lin are two of my all-time favorite books, too...

[stateless82.livejournal.com]

The only thing that I can think of right now is the mystery series Carolyn Heilbrun's wrote under the name of Amanda Cross. The lead character was a lit professor in a NYC university. They were okay.

ummm, There's also Richard Farina's Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me. I'm pretty sure it was set in a university, but it's been a long time since I read it and I'm not sure I'd recommend it as being good.

[gwynnega]

Oh, the Amanda Cross books! Thanks...

[shealynn88.livejournal.com]

How's this for pure randomosity? I love, love, love Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, and its rare to find a fellow TL lover, so I just wanted to say, yay us!

But what I was really coming by to say was that soundingsea pointed me to your memories because I was trying to find non-eye sporking Willow/Giles, and your memories are a TREASURE TROVE, and my eyes are now safe, and it's all because of the two of you. I owe you my ability to see, and I thought you should know. :)

Oh, and Charles de Lint doesn't have anything set at a university that I recall, but his lyrical style is similar, I think, to Pamela Dean's. If you get desperate, I'd recommend Memory and Dream or one of his short story collections if you're limited on time. They tend to all be sorts of interrelated, which I love. Dreams Underfoot is the one that hooked me.

In any case, thank you, you are a life saver, and if you found it in your heart to friend me (even temporarily) so that I could read your W/G stuff, that would be very much with the awesome. :)

[gwynnega]

Thanks for friending, and for the Charles de Lint rec. I've friended you, so you're welcome to read my flocked Willow/Giles stories. Most of them are also available at willowgiles.com, which also features other non-eye sporking W/G! :-)