Lauren's Line

By Sondra Spatt Olsen

When Professor Lauren Goldberg drops dead in her windowless office, her job in the English Department (a line item in the budget) is up for grabs. Her opportunistic colleagues eye this nifty nugget, snub any dignified lull for the obsequies, and begin at once to tussle.

In this incisive, comic novel about job scrambling in academe Sondra Spatt Olsen exposes the messiness in an urban university of the mid-eighties, a time of hefty budget cuts, occupational instability, Machiavellian stratagems, and scholastic angst. Signs of breakdown are ubiquitous. Hallways are dark, classrooms are cold, and chalk is scarce.

Who will win Lauren's post? None of the posturing candidates is a shoo-in. All jostle for favor, money, power, and prestige. Cherry Binder, the department's popular feminist scholar, has been bringing her infant to class and breastfeeding in the office. In an endless, shameful quest to nail down his tenure Brian McGlinchee has forged his student-evaluation forms. Moreover, he is having an affair with one of his students. Nor could George Reilly, the department's playboy and the late Lauren's lover, be earmarked as a stable candidate. He goes bonkers at the memorial service. Steve Speck--young, naive, and introspective--is more interested in index cards and note topics than in his own promotion.

Added to this assorted cast of professorial misfits that keep the plot careening are a distinguished African American professor, a Russian poet, a beastly administrator, a crusty custodian, and the world's oldest graduate assistant.

Olsen's first book was praised by Kirkus Reviews as "a compelling collection, overall, by a lively and interesting writer" and by Publishers Weekly for its "cool, delicious irony." This new novel combines acidic wit, sharply drawn characters, a twisting plot line, emotional conflict, and a refreshing candor that ignites hilarity.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 157806614X
• ISBN13: 9781578066148
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Believable Characters

The author creates the most believable characters in Lauren's Line. The vivid descriptions of the characters and surroundings allowed the reader into the mind and body of each character. The names matched each person to a T!!! Great book!

I lauged and laugh.

Once I started reading Lauren's Line I couldn't do anything until I put it down. So many hilarious characters, so absurd their world at a public college. In fact the other day I was at a dull oral review here at my state college as my mind wandered I snickered to myself remembering the professor in Lauren's Line who bought multiple canvas totes the year he graduated from Harvard so he could advertise his education for the rest of his life. Maybe that doesn't sound that funny in the awkward way I wrote it but Sandra Spatt Olsen really will have you in stitches when you read her take on the story. I mean when was the last time a book made you laugh a good six months after you read it? Also the book is small enough to easily fit in my purse so I could carry it around. It's cute too. Its red spine looks good on the shelf.

Best fiction of 2004

This was the funniest book I read all year. If you are an English major or an English teacher, you will fall down laughing at this satire of an English department. If you're not in academia, you'll still find it very funny but you'll never know how realistic it is. The humor is dark, and the writing style is subtle. One of my favorite parts was the memorial service for the dead Lauren (I don't want to give it away but it involves public nudity.)

English 101 and then some!

If you're familiar with Sondra Spatt Olsen's work, you always know after the first paragraph that you're in for a good read. And if you've taken English courses at a large urban school and wondered what goes on behind the scenes, Lauren's Line tells it all in a lucid trenchant way, skewering the characters and serving them really well done. You're sure to recognize your English 101 teacher. Olsen's a professional. What you see is what you get and that's people in all their pettiness and all their bigness. Hooray for George Reilly! He gets my vote for English Department Chair.

Unlovable characters make a great book

This is a great book about the faculty and staff that work at a New York public college. If you were ever an English major or considered a career in academia, you will love this book. A professor, Lauren, drops dead and all her colleageus backstab and plot to get the budget line assigned to her. Every character is a complete louse, yet you cant stop reading to find out what happens next. The humor in this book is black and very sharp. You will love it.