Required Reading

Set in the 1980s, this novel follows Martin Langley, a graduate student and then professor whose faith in academic life is unraveling. He comes to the profession with a belief in books, teaching, and honest inquiry, but finds himself in a world increasingly shaped by departmental quarrels, stubborn orthodoxies, and institutional politics. Gradually, the life he had worked so hard to enter begins to feel less like a calling than a compromise. He grows estranged from his mentors and students,...