It Will Come to Me: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Emily Fox Gordon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2009

A sharply observed comic novel about a writer straining against the role of faculty wife

This first novel from the acclaimed memoirist Emily Fox Gordon is a tart, intelligent comedy of manners set on the campus of a large Southern university. It is also a story about the comforts and grievances of a marriage of longstanding—about change and continuity and the possibility of renewal in midlife.

Ben Blau is the reluctant chair of the philosophy department of The Lola Dees Institute, surrounded by a bestiary of academic innocents and opportunists. His wife Ruth—a writer whose early literary success never quite blossomed into a career—nurtures sometimes noisy and sometimes private rebellions against the conventions of academic life. Their lives have settled, if not always comfortably, into a dull ceremonial round of convocations, committee meetings, and pot-luck dinners. To Ruth it seems that nothing will ever change.

Except that this year a new couple has arrived on campus: an ethereal, celebrated young memoirist and her husband, an intellectual jack-of-all-trades and perpetual misfit. Something about these two throws the staid academic world of the Lola Dees Institute into comic chaos and revives Ruth's hopes that she might become once again the writer she used to be.

Emily Fox Gordon's astringent depiction of academic life and her mature, finely wrought observations about marriage and relationships make It Will Come to Me is a complete delight —engaging, wise, superbly written, and very, very funny.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Memoirist Gordon ventures into fiction with this mixed academic comedy set at a Texas university. Ruth Blau, a once-promising novelist married to philosophy professor Ben, achieved some acclaim years ago, but she never got around to following it up. When celebrated memoirist Ricia Spottiswoode and her protective husband, Charles Johns, are added to the faculty, Ruth hopes this will give her a chance at the literary life she's dreamed of. In the meantime, Ben suffers when a flaky, fairy-obsessed woman replaces his longtime secretary. Ruth and Ben also try to juggle the demands of their mentally ill son, Isaac, whose only contact with them is through his therapist. The central characters, unfortunately, are too passive and spend most of their time observing each other and what happens around them, and though Gordon's prose is sharp—she particularly excels in scene-setting—the overall effect is one of disconnection: from character to character and writer to reader. (Mar.)
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From The New Yorker

In this campus satire, Ben and Ruth Blau have settled into what appears to be a comfortable routine at their Southern university campus. Ruth, mourning her inability to follow up on an acclaimed early trilogy of novels, drinks a little too much; Ben, working on a manuscript about altruism, shirks bureaucratic duties in the philosophy department. Their lives are disrupted by two arrivals: a new president determined to shake up the staid faculty habits and a popular memoirist and self-help author who prods Ruth to begin writing again. Gordon’s début novel aims at predictable targets: departmental politics, obscure academic fields, self-righteousness, and élitism. Her comedy is deft, but the plot seems contrived, particularly when the story of the Blaus’ wayward son draws things to a falsely redemptive close.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; First Edition edition (March 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385525877
• ISBN-13: 978-0385525879
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,502,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From S. Krishna's Books, March 25, 2009

By 

skrishna (http://www.skrishnasbooks.com) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: It Will Come to Me: A Novel (Hardcover)

I find books about professors on university campuses extremely interesting. Perhaps it's because I romanticize the profession, or maybe because I would love nothing better than to be able to be a student for the rest of my life, but I simply love reading books about academia. When I first heard about It Will Come to Me, I immediately knew I wanted to read it.

It Will Come to Me is the debut novel of Emily Fox Gordon, who is a memoirist. Her mastery of her craft really shows in this novel; the characters in It Will Come to Me seem completely real. Except for the narration shifts, I could have honestly believed I was reading someone's memoirs. Gordon has a unique ability to shape and develop characters to their fullest potential.

Ruth is a very interesting character. She is very conflicted and has a lot of scars from the difficulties of her past. At best, she is stuck in the role of a university wife; she hasn't accomplished anything of her own for some time and just feels useless. At the beginning of the book, she is obviously bitter and perhaps even an alcoholic - she certainly drinks a lot. I honestly thought I wouldn't like her, but for some reason she endeared herself to me despite her faults. I loved watching her character grow and develop into a more healthy person.

I also liked the secondary storyline of Ruth and Ben's son. Their love for him and guilt over what he had become was palpable; you could visualize them questioning every action they had made - did we drive away our son? It was incredibly well written and I loved the way it turned out.

It Will Come to Me is a very enjoyable book that I recommend to anyone interested in a character study, or for anyone who enjoys books about professors. It's well written, engaging, and very easy to read. Emily Fox Gordon's foray into fiction was an successful one and I hope we get to hear more from her in the future!

[..]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A smart comedy, and a page-turner, March 24, 2009

By 

Cole M. - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Will Come to Me: A Novel (Hardcover)

Emily Fox Gordon's first novel is a sly academic comedy, replete with a hilarious parade of characters anyone who's spent time on a campus will recognize with great satisfaction. It is also the affecting tale of Ruth Blau, a once-accomplished faculty wife who, stranded jaundiced-eyed on the periphery of the college community and devolving into one of its caricatures, desperately seeks and eventually finds relief from her despondency. Readers of this page-turner will admire Ms. Gordon's sharp eye for detail and comic timing, as well as her warm sympathy for all of the delightfully bumbling, posing, maddening characters who populate the Lola Dees Institute. An intelligent read. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out loud funny!, May 10, 2009

By 

Avid Reader "Sandy B" (Omaha, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Will Come to Me: A Novel (Hardcover)

What a fun book! I worked at a small university at one time and this book captures the pettiness, ego centric environment perfectly. I found the ending to be a bit trite but the book was so entertaining, I could easily overlook it.