WORDS: CIARA FORRISTAL

As the new term approaches and Freshers’ week, (with its inevitable prospect of bad choices and unforgettably forgotten moments) is upon us, it may or may not be comforting to compare ourselves as college students to our fictional counterparts. TCD alumnus Elske Rahill will shortly be releasing a novel based around the lives of three final year Trinity students. Described by its publisher as ‘darkly irreverent,’ Between Dog and Wolf is due to be released next month by Lilliput Press. In the meantime, however, there are plenty others to choose from. From inappropriate liaisons, awkward sexual (or near sexual) encounters, group sex, and frequent drug use, to intellectual bluffing and insights into the lives of the academic staff, the parallels to be drawn with actual college life are, for the most part, startlingly realistic and brutally honest.

 

Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis:

In this novel Ellis provides readers with the invaluable lesson that the unwritten rules of college, like the different narratives of the novel, are not set in stone. No two college experiences are the same, according to Ellis, who shows that underneath shared experiences differences exist, some which can be dark in nature if left undetected. The liberal arts of New England’s 1980s were indeed liberal, involving daily changes of majors, sexualities and perspectives, no doubt influenced by heavy drinking, drug cocktails, and college assignments kept to a minimum—the joys of an arts degree!

 

I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe:

Sexual scandal, and intellectual and class elitism dominate this novel: the story of Charlotte Simmons, a poor scholarship student who navigates the terrain of Dupont University.  Although college antics are not unknown to junior freshman set to embark on their college adventure, rural Charlotte endures a steep learning curve. Her eyes are opened to  the importance of social status, and the influence that accompanies it, and the machinations of university life – from the power wielded by the athletic department to the social aura and prestige of frat guys. This novel is eye-opening even to the veterans of college life, particularly those wishing to do a stint abroad in an American university.

 

The Opposite Bastard by Simon Packham:

This comedy of manners delightfully exposes the egos, tantrums and backbiting that occurs within the drama society during any major production. The novel’s protagonist is Michael Owen, a quadriplegic who is cast as Hamlet for director Philip’s own personal agenda, and endures the various attempts by his own bitter carer Timothy ‘De Niro’, a failed actor, to sabotage the play. Not only does Packham satirise the elitism of the thespians, particularly that of Philip, a hipster with considerable wealth and an even greater aversion to it—but also provides hilarious general commentary in the form of brilliantly politically incorrect vocabulary such as ‘spaz chariot’ and ‘raspberry cripple.’

 

Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe:

Universities have always faced the challenge of balancing tradition and modernity. In Sharpe’s novel the importance placed on tradition in the long-standing institution of Porterhouse College, Cambridge is comically undermined by the prospect of female students, contraceptive devices and a student canteen. The master’s unexpected death due to a ‘Porterhouse Blue’ (a stroke brought on as a result of overindulging in the college’s cuisine) causes uproar when it becomes clear that no successor has been named. Meanwhile, research graduate student Lionel Zipser’s attempts to lose his virginity are repeatedly foiled throughout the novel, providing much hilarity as well as insights into innovative alternative uses for condoms: caution, it comes with a health warning!

 

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon:

With talk of one’s future prospects increasing as our education progresses, Chabon’s novel about professor Grady Tripp shows that even college professors don’t always have their lives in order. Tripp is an English lecturer struggling to finish his novel Wonder Boys following the success of his previous novel seven years ago. Not only is Tripp’s career stalling, his affair with the college chancellor takes an unexpected turn at a university-sponsored weekend away. College farce and antics are not reserved merely for students in this novel, and Tripp in particular gets himself into a predicament involving the chancellor’s dog, a boa constrictor and even the late Marilyn Monroe.

 

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides:

At times, college life can be an insular world full of insider knowledge, jargon and routines that run, to a certain extent, parallel to ordinary life. The importance of semiotics, linguistics and theological debate are daily conversation starters amongst Eugenides’ characters and this novel is a manual for faking familiarity with the work of heavywight intellectuals such as Derrida, Deleuze, Strauss and Barthes, even when such names are a key component of your coursework. The novel follows the lives of three interlinked characters through senior year and graduation, and explores the steep learning curve that each faces when expectations meet reality.

 

 The Secret History by Donna Tartt:

Choosing subjects in college is a lottery when it comes to class dynamics. The combination of characters can bring about stimulating intellectual debate, socialising, and even romantic interests, but can also lead to strained interpersonal relations. Such characters and dynamics are explored in Tartt’s debut novel, which poignantly highlights the dangers of mob mentality in a clique composed primarily of the elite. The dynamics of an elite group of handpicked Classics students leads to sexual orgies, blackmail and eventually murder as the group closes in on one another as a means of protecting themselves.

 

The Campus Trilogy by David Lodge:

Ever wondered what lecturers get up to in their spare time? English professor David Lodge dispels the mysterious aura that surrounds academics’ private lives, to highly entertaining and informative results. In his first novel of the trilogy, Changing Places, British professor Philip Swallow goes on an exchange with American professor Morris Zapp and as well as swapping cultural experiences, they also exchange the small matter of their marital relations. The second novel, Small World, sees an international conference transformed into a medieval joust, ostensibly for a coveted scholarly position, but also in chivalric pursuit of love. In the final instalment of the trilogy, Nice Work, professor Robyn Penrose receives her comeuppance, having underestimated Victor Wilcox, the factory owner under whom she is forced to study in a ‘shadowing’ scheme, mistakenly deeming him to be her social and intellectual inferior.

 

The Nigger Factory by Gil Scott-Heron:

Although scandal and rumours are rampant in university societies and organisations, their impact is fleeting and in some cases they become the fodder for urban legends. In Scott-Heron’s novel, set in the African-American Sutton University, Virginia in the 1960s, the polar opposite dynamics of university politics are highlighted. Student president Earl Thomas is faced with with not only the pendulum of revolutionary change that raged through the entire era, but also the rising conflict with militant black power organisation MJUMBE. Modern ‘first-world’ problems (such as library opening hours or old-fashioned IT systems) pale in comparison to the microcosmic struggles of Earl Thomas and the dean of Sutton University in the 1960s.

 

Between Dog and Wolf, by Elske Rahill will be published in October by The Lilliput Press.