While I was up on the library ladder putting away the now-read latest novel by JCO, I rediscovered this collection, a gift from a friend. [The Hungry Ghosts] it said across its plain butterscotch cover. A few pages in there is this: "A preta (ghost) is one who, in the ancient Buddhist cosmology, wants the earth’s surface, continually driven by hunger—that is, desire of one kind or another." Hmmm.

"Seven Alusive Comedies" the subtitle reads. I might be up for a comedy, I thought. "Alusive"…an interesting word choice. Found it later online in [A Dictionary of English Synonymes and Synonymous or Parallel Expressions Designed as a Practical Guide to Aptness and Variety of Phraseology] by Richard Soule (Little, Brown, and Co., 1871) "Alusive, a. Hinting, suggestive, em- dissension, war of words."

And the stories were originally published in the late 60s, early 70s….that could be fun. Luckily, I got down off the ladder before I started reading.

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The seven stories in this collection—all of them about academics (mostly male)—are what I might call ironic comedies. Ones laughs but feels a little uncomfortable doing so. Several of the stories have interconnected characters and are set at the same university, Hilberry College in southern Ontario. In all of the stories, these academics are undressed by Oates; their insecurities, fears, desires, prejudices…et al, revealed through their actions and inner thoughts.

In “Democracy in America” Ronald Pauli rushes to the apartment of his suddenly-deceased copy editor to retrieve the one copy of a survey of the works of Tocqueville and Grattan (those of us of a certain age will appreciate the fact that he didn’t make a carbon copy when he typed it. That is certainly more fun to read now, but would be less funny in the late 60s, early 70s). Turns out his copy editor, who had been found dead in his Murphy bed, was a hoarder….

In “Pilgrim’s Progress” a young, timid female lecturer in English is taken under the wing (or falls under the spell) of a charismatic and domineering male colleague, much to her detriment.

In “Up from Slavery” psychology professor Franklin Ambrose (who is not “black” but prefers the “more sanitary and middle-class” word, “negro”) falls in love with Molly, a new hire for the English department, much to his detriment.

A newer professor feuds with a more veteran one In “A Descriptive Catalogue”.

In “The Birth of Tragedy” a young man accepts a TA position at the college under the tutelage of the star of the Humanities department (and learns to bullshit when giving a lecture, imo)

The inner thoughts of Murray Licht, a “famous” poet attending a Poetry Week celebration, reveal the unexpectedly cutthroat world of poetry in “Rewards of Fame.”

And in the final story “Angst,” noted novelist B. G. Donovan disguises herself in order to sneak into an academic conference where there is a three-person panel discussion of her work. The panel gets out of hand, chaos ensues, and the audience mistakes another red-headed woman for the noted author, much to the author’s horror.

Certainly I found some of the stories more enjoyable than others (I wince at the use of the word enjoyable, LOL) Forty-five years after publication, this collection is (still) delightfully amusing. And while the outer trappings might be a bit dated, humankind clearly has not evolved further, so I suspect the foibles of academics and academia are still much the same. ( )