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Professor X'sIn The Basement Of The Ivory Tower: Confessions Of An Accidental Academic [Hardcover]2011 (2000)

by Professor X.(Favorite Author)

3.18 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: This is a three-star book, to which I added a star out of sympathy for the author.Make no mistake. Most of this book is NOT "the truth about college." Most of this book is a memoir, not about college but just about American middle class life in the period 1990-2010. Poor Professor X. He got his B.A. in English and even took an M.F.A. in writing. And then waited on tables while writing a book, which was rejected. After which he got a government job and together with his wife raised his family in a succession of houses which he describes in detail. Ultimately, to keep the pot boiling, he got a second job teaching a required writing course to first year students at a community college. Writing 101. And his students, class after class, were just terrible. The article... more on which this book is based discussed the realities of written language for first year students at two-year schools, which aren't pretty. The article got a lot of press, and Professor X decided to turn it into a book, the book! His first published book! Well, apparently he didn't want to do a research paper and scour the landscape for material relevant to what had been his article in order to properly inflate his article into a book. No. He used the opportunity to wax eloquent about his own life and struggles. You can't blame him. The poor bastard had idolized books and writing all his life, just like a large percentage of us right here on GR. So he turned the article into a memoir. Various readers on Amazon and similar places have complained about this. They're miffed that the book isn't entirely about teaching today's college students. But what do you expect from a (terribly) frustrated would-be author? It's sad, really. Not the fact that he decided to pad out his article into a memoir. Not the fact that he at last got an opportunity to do "creative writing" and see it in print. But the fact that after having done so he was revealed publicly in his book, to himself and to his readers, as a not very interesting person, the same kind of everyman that most of us are. That smarts.
review 2: A memoir of an adjunct English professor, this is also a critique of higher education and the contemporary expectation that every American is entitled to a college education. The book does begin to ramble a bit at the end, and some sections are repetitive, with the author continually hammering at a few favorite points. Still, for those who may be oblivious to the current state of affairs in the academic realm, or who want a glimpse into what is really happening in remedial and general education classes, this will be sometimes shocking and hopefully, a thought-provoking read. less

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