Stuffed with memorable characters, sparkling with deliciously acid humor, Moo is a rare bird in today's literary menagerie: a great read that also makes you think. Displays a wicked wit and an unerring eye for American foibles. Moo suggests a mix of Tom Wolfe's wit and John Updike's satiny reach. Don't skip a page, don't skip a paragraph.

Not for a minute does Moo lose its perfect satiric pitch or its pacing. In this wonderfully written and masterfully plotted novel, Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres, offers us a wickedly funny comedy that is also a darkly poignant slice of life. Walker, the provost's right hand and campus information queen, knows where all the bodies are buried Timothy Nonahan, associate professor of English, advocates eavesdropping for his creative writing assignments and Bob Carlson, a sophomore, feeds and maintains his only friend: a hog named Earl Butz. Here, among an atmosphere rife with devious plots, mischievous intrigue, lusty liaisons, and academic one-upmanship, Chairman X of the Horticulture Department harbors a secret fantasy to kill the dean Mrs. Nestled in the heart of the Midwest, amid cow pastures and waving fields of grain, lies Moo University, a distinguished institution devoted to the art and science of agriculture. A fter a long absence, dearly missed award winning writer and former ISU professor Jane Smiley returns to visit and share some of her work with the ISU.

An uproariously funny and at the same time hauntingly melancholy portrait of a college community in the Midwest.' C1995 FIRST EDITION VERY GOOD HARDCOVER IN VG DUST JACKET, LIGHT WEAR KNOPF A NOVEL BY JANE SMILEY

Moo by Jane Smiley