Customer Reviews

The Dean's List

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Hasslers's books are always a treat to read, and this one is no exception. He combines humor and wry observation to amuse us, while at the same time making us think about the serious matters in life. Comparisons to Russo's Straight Man and Smiley's Moo are inevitable. Dean's List struck me as less humorous than these two novels but still had plenty of humor. As always Hassler excells with characterization, although I thought the college president too stupid to be real (at least I hope so). The characters from the retirement center were superb. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys intelligent fiction. All five of the Hassler novels I have read so far have been wonderful. North of Hope continues to be my personal favorite.

There's a comfortable "old-shoeness" to picking up a Hassler novel. One doesn't read Hassler primarily for the plots, though they are sometimes dramatic and always include a grande finale. Rather, one reads him for his wry depictions of ordinary humans and for his gentle, but trenchant observations about midwestern, middleclass, or academic life. The Dean's List is a sequel to Rookery Blues, and it is helpful, but not necessary, to have read that.

Though the plot line here is not as insistent as in some of his other novels, one doesn't really care. Who can read this book and not be amused by characters like Dot, "traumatized in...youth by the Great Depression," a woman who "hangs up her used paper towels to dry." The annual fund-raiser dinner at the Hi-Rise housing for the elderly is a classic-- collecting funds to build rest room facilities on the main floor so that residents "caught short" won't have to go upstairs to their apartments to find relief. Lolly Edwards's planning and attending her own full-blown wake so that she can see her friends and out-of-town relatives and hear all her eulogies is so remarkable one wonders why more people don't do it! I loved every minute of this book.

I have not read Hassler's "Rookery Blues," but after finishing "Dean's List" this morning, I plan to start "Blues" by nightfall. Hassler's story stays with you even when you're not reading him--the mark of a good writer. Although much of the book is suffused with a melancholic, wintry mood, it is also greatly funny at times. The malapropic hockey coach is particularly hilarious. On the down side, there may be just a few too many extended-family characters than necessary, and it is hard to believe that the protagonist, approaching 60 years of age, is genuinely such a "mama's boy"! Also, the protagonist's second marriage at the end seems a little forced, as we learned comparatively little about his new wife during the main part of the book. On the plus side, Hassler's story keeps the reader involved, and his inclusion of poems by the fictional, aging poet, Robert Falcon, adds a nice touch of realism. I would also truly love to see hordes of people come out to see a beloved poet, as happens in the book. In short, "Dean's List" is engaging without being overwrought. I'd especially recommend it for anyone who is or has been in academia in the 1990s. Hassler, much like Richard Russo in "Straight Man," manages to poke fun at higher education while also eliciting a certain amount of respect for it.

As a displaced Minnesotan, I always enjoy revisiting my home state via the novels of Jon Hassler. Like coming home for the holidays, this book evokes the mixed emotions of anticipation and disappointment, the joy and frustration of renewing relationships with the relatives, and the uncomfortable reality that time takes its toll on the ones we love.

Hassler fans will find in The Dean's List another enjoyable trip to the now-familiar small town of Rookery. But this book is unlike its predecessors in that it may be Hassler's last outing to the Badbattle River valley. Readers may not know that Hassler has Parkinson's disease. And the awareness of his mortality seeps through the pages of this book.

While all of his books are to some degree autobiographical, we see in The Dean's List a greater sense of authorial self-revelation. Leland Edwards, the Icejam Quintet alumnus and now dean of the college, is a frustrated academic-turned-administrator struggling to keep his school above water. He encounters his hero, Richard Falcon, a Frost-esque poet working on his magnum opus. Edwards decides to revitalize the good name of Rookery State by bringing the esteemed poet to campus for a rare reading.

Little does Edwards know that Falcon has his own struggles, not the least of which is the onset of Parkinson's disease. And in these two characters we get a glimpse of Jon Hassler's own plight. Both Edwards and Falcon--and Hassler himself, we might surmise--are fighting to achieve a sense of purpose, meaning, accomplishment and lasting significance at a point in their lives where the clock is ticking and the odds are against them. Will they achieve their goals? Will they complete the tasks that lie before them? And will they be remembered when they are gone?

It is these elements that make this novel an intriguing read. True, it lacks some of the power and beauty of his earlier novels--but this too, is illustrative of the trauma we experience as we approach the end of life. Can we find meaning and significance in our midlife and waning years? This novel provides insights well worth contemplating, from one who well knows what it feels like to be there.

One of the things that I love most about Jon Hassler's writing is that he takes us to a level where we become intimate with the characters and their stories. I very much enjoyed the first person perspective of Leland in Rookery Blues, and felt as though he were someone I knew and cared about by the end of the story. Although Jon does have Parkinson's, I do not believe that this book was a questioning of his effectiveness/impact of either his writing or of his life. I believe that he is very comfortable with his accomplishments and with who he is, and happen to know that he actually has a number of projects that he is currently working on. So the good news--we've not heard the last from Jon Hassler yet!

I started this book with great expectations that were dashed within the first 20 pages. I will give most any book 100 pages but, I have had enough already at page 50. I agree with above that the professor is too stupid to be real and this book is sheer boredom. I doubt I will waste my time with any of Hassler's other books.