Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror by Hynes, James - 1998

New York: Picador USA. Fine 1998. Softcover. Marfree, acidfree; not written-in, remainder, reprint or ex-lib. Mail SAMEDAY! ; 0.94 x 8.14 x 5.43; 338 pages; : Horror and humor together are always delightful, but rarely is the combination executed with such gleeful panache as in the three novellas... The humor is at the expense of American academics, from struggling postdocs to crusty full professors. The characters spout silly jargon, wrestle with their writing problems, preen their tender egos, and skewer their colleagues. Most are likeable: their vanity is so human, it's almost touching. But the horror isn't played for laughs; it's ruthless and chilling, in the tradition of Edgar A. Poe and M. R. James. As one New York Times reviewer writes, ""Publish and Perish is an odd and exhilarating experience--the playfulness of post-modernism at its best somehow celebrating the urgent, earnest suspense of old-fashioned, cliff-hanging narrative. ""N Y Times Book Review (08/03/1997) : ...draws on the traditional mechanics of the [horror] genre--suspense, surprise, an infusion of the sup .