There’s a chapter called “I Feel Like” because, of course, that’s how students begin almost all their classroom discussions. Johnston has an ear for the conversations going on in classrooms these days. The video goes viral and, voilà, an investigation is launched. After learning that Russell’s class would be reading Huckleberry Finn, members of the Progressive Student Alliance show up and start reading passages with the N-word aloud, filming the scene and then selectively editing the professor’s comments. Straight white males teaching the works of other (dead) straight white males hasn’t gone over well on campuses for years, but in the age of social justice and social media, critics have more effective tactics. Is the girl who crawls around campus with a ball and chain attached to her leg to symbolize the oppression of sexual assault a fictional character, or the infamous undergraduate “ mattress girl”?Ĭampusland’s plot centers on a young English professor, Ephraim Russell, trying to get tenure. Take the $50 million that the fictional Devon University offers for diversity initiatives to placate protesters who think that the school isn’t woke enough-it sounds an awful lot like Yale’s recent $50 million diversity investment. In his new satire, Campusland, he rips stories straight from the headlines and drops them into his plot. When reasonable observers look at what’s happened on college campuses in recent years, their reaction is often, “You can’t make this stuff up.” So perhaps it’s not surprising that the novelist Scott Johnston decided that he didn’t have to. This strong debut will resonate with readers who enjoy their parody with a side of pathos. Johnston’s writing is lively and takes his story through a few surprising turns. The book culminates in a confrontation orchestrated by Red between Lulu and some of her detractors, which transpires in front of the media, that helps decide Eph’s fate.

As the lie gains traction and nationwide attention-though Lulu remains vague about the meaning behind her project and even recants her accusation-power-hungry school officials are blinded by their political correctness: they insist that Lulu must be in denial and Eph is trying to intimidate her. Having failed to make the cover of an NYC society rag and indignant after Eph rejects her advances, Lulu decides to put on a performance art project that involves her lying about Eph sexually assaulting her. Red thinks of himself as the top progressive in the school, but he soon finds himself usurped by social-climbing freshman Lulu Harris. While teaching Mark Twain, earnest English professor Eph Russell gets unfairly branded a racist by a disingenuous group of self-righteous students led by trust-fund baby Red Wheeler. Johnston’s standout debut successfully skewers the politically correct culture of liberal arts colleges by chronicling how opportunists use it to their advantage at exclusive Devon University in New England.

Campusland by Scott Johnston