(Larger Image)
|
Death of a Department Chair: A Novel
by Lynn C. Miller
Product Group: Book
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (2006-08-31)
ISBN: 0299219747
EAN: 9780299219741
Dewy Decimal #: 813.6
Paperback: 250 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: SA08010417
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Exactly as shown, Spine uncreased, Text clean with NO marks.
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
In Death of a Department Chair, protagonist Miriam Held recounts the events of the previous fall when she was suspected of killing Isabel Vittorio, the chair of her department and her former lover. The controversial and contrary Vittorio was, at the time of her death, attempting to block the hire of a brilliant African American female professor. Already under siege for her attempts to increase diversity on campus, Miriam is forced to defend her reputation and her life. As she searches for the truth, Miriam amasses evidence that leaves few friends and colleagues free from suspicion. Both a classic whodunit and a witty satire, Death of a Department Chair dramatizes how communities can create the very climate of mistrust and paranoia that victimizes them.
|
Customer Reviews
|
The worst book I have ever read. Really.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2007-02-22
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I don't know how this book got published. I've read some bad books, and this is seriously the worst I have ever seen, ever. The writing, the characterization, the plot, are all horrible. Then they all merge together to make it even worse. I would try to say something nice like "Well, at least the author seems to be a native English speaker!" except that the author keeps having characters say random things in German, and the line "Dumbstruck am I" (page 77) has got to compete with "Ya know that guy off in whose camper they were whacking" for its awkwardness, but it's worse because you know it was supposed to sound formal whereas "off they were whacking" was from the Beavis and Butthead movie.
The plot is that a woman is murdered and everyone's immediate reaction is to worry they will be the top suspect, then they stand around and complain for 164 pages, and then they have a seance that is successful in calling up the spirit of the dead woman to reveal the killer, even though the only suspension of disbelief previously required by the reader was to believe that there would really be so many lesbians all working together in the same department of the same school in Texas. There are I think 5 characters total, all minor, who aren't lesbians; and two of those are gay men. But the plot: on about page 15 I imagined the worst, stupidest possible ending to the story that could possibly occur, AND THAT WAS WHAT HAPPENED. They hadn't even introduced the characters who did it yet.
The book is also written confusingly in an imaginary 3rd person by an imaginary 1st person who puts editor's notes in the middle of the imagined text for no reason and there are also entries from someone else's diary as well. Yes, yes, it makes about as much sense while you're reading it. I can only imagine the author did this because she realized the book was terrible and wanted to shift the blame onto a poor helpless figment of her imagination. The 3rd person segments don't read like a person would write an autobiography, the diary segments read nothing like a diary -- in fact, most of the people don't even act like people. They act like someone wrote down a single word to describe the character's function and personality (i.e. "Paula - black." Oh, I'm not kidding. There's also "Lester - male," which means that he hates all women who won't have sex with him.)
This book is tagged as being Lesbian Interest, but I can't see how this would interest lesbians aside from the fact that a lot of the characters are lesbians. Like cop stories must all interest cops and histories all interest dead people. And by the system reported above, "Lesbian" is always their main personality trait, which means they have to start doing romantic/sexual things with each other at weird times, like in the middle of grave conversations. Example:
H.& I in my house. In bed, sipping wine. "I have a student who is a potential problem."
Her round face looks sympathetic. "Poor dear. Boy? Girl?"
"Her name is Reggie."
"A crush, do you think?" Hannah puts her finger in her wineglass & drips a few drops between my breasts. Then she licks them. "Um," she says.
If this were a conversation with a male/female, I would be demanding the girl take that wine bottle and smack this inattentive jerk over the head with it. Also, that above piece is supposed to be from a diary -- Samuel Pepys himself would not have been so formal, I tell you.
There is also a weird habit -- made even more weird by the fact that the book is supposed to have been written by one of the characters within it, that instead of describing important actions occuring in a scene, the author instead starts describing the locations of furniture. Characters' thoughts are never explored, in fact they don't even seem to listen to each other when talking face to face. They are good or evil as blatantly as if this were an old-fashioned melodrama, with villains cackling and twirling their mustaches -- which they have because they are men -- and the good guys faults only existing out of bad luck or misunderstandings.
The author is a college professor in a drama department, and maybe if this were a play instead of a book it wouldn't be half so bad. The way that scenery and every single little movement of the characters, including every single time someone licks their lips, which happens a lot it would seem, has to interrupt any existing action in order to be described might then be sensible. And that's about the only compliment or forgiving thing I can say about it.
|
|
A "Shedunit"
Rating  (3)
Date: 2006-12-25
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
"A Shedunit"
Miller, Lynn C., "Death of a Department Chair". Terrace Books, 2006
Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
Lynn Miller is a mystery writer who has done a bang up job with "Death of a Department Chair". This is one of the fastest moving murder mysteries I have ever read and boy did it pack a wallop. Academia is always fun to read about and throw in a gay theme, it is twice as fun. And then are twice as many villains here. Those of you who have been to college will feel right at home with this cozy book. It is witty and a real page turner. It is not just a "whodunit" but a "who woulda done it if they coulda".
Margaret Held, our heroine, tells the reader of the previous year when she was the chief suspect in the murder of her former lover and department chair, Isabel Vittorio. Vittorio was not all that clean herself; she had been involved in hanky panky regarding the hire of a new female professor who happened to be African American and was at odds with the majority of the faculty. Miriam, on the other hand, was forced into acting in the opposite direction and therefore had to defend both her reputation and her life. In her quest for the truth, Miriam gathers evidence that seems to incriminate all of her friends and colleagues. What develops is an atmosphere and mistrust and a new look at departments of literature that few of us have ever seen before.
Cleverly and wittedly, written there are enough twists and turns to made heads spin and what emerges is a clever satire of the academic world. Miller's characters are so finely created that there were times that I felt that if I looked up from the pages of the book, I would find one of them sitting in the room with me. Combined that with clear and lucid prose, a wonderful story and outrageous goings on, you are set for a wonderful read.
Miler has written one other book, "The Fool's Journey" which I can't wait to read and co-edited "Voices Made Flesh: Performing Women's Autobiography." What she has done for me is create a fan that is anxious to explore her writing. I have never really liked what is referred to as "Lesbian Lit" but this book sure made me change my mind.
|
|
|