Time to hit the books! This reading group explores the theme of “Back to School” in classic and contemporary literature.

We will consider the collegiate experience – of students and faculty alike – over the course of two semesters. In the fall, we tackle campus novels and professors’ (often comic, sometimes tragic) attempts to navigate the university. And in the spring we graduate to varsity novels, when we look through the eyes of both undergraduate and graduate students as they balance learning and loving (and sometimes murdering). A final meeting has us moving beyond the hallowed, ivy-covered halls to see that the promise of graduation does not necessarily translate to a happy life.

The Back to School reading group meets on the first Tuesday of each month, September through May, 5-7 pm in the Athenæum’s Bound. Please note, the October session will meet virtually on Zoom.

Fall Semester — Campus

Tues, September 5
“The Unexpected Letter,” excerpted from The Groves of Academe, Mary McCarthy (1952)
On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
Optional: Vladimir, Julia May Jonas (2022)

*CANCELLED* Tues, October 3
The October Zoom meeting has been cancelled as Tom’s in London without strong wifi. Lucky Jim will be discussed at the November meeting.

Tues, November 7
Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis (1954)
Optional: The Chair, season one (Netflix, 2021)

Stoner, John Williams (1965)
“The Greatest American Novel You’ve Never Heard Of,” by Tim Kreider in The New Yorker (2013)

Tues, December 5
Japanese by Spring, Ishmael Reed (1993)
The Human Stain, Philip Roth (2000)

Spring Semester — Varsity

Tues, January 2
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
Optional: “The Secret Oral History of Bennington,” by Lili Anolik in Esquire (2019) The Rules of Attraction dir. Roger Avary (2002)

Tues, February 6
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh (1954)

Tues, March 5
The Idiot, Elif Batuman (2017)
Optional: Either/Or by Elif Batuman (2022)
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, Elif Batuman (2010)

Tues, April 2
Real Life, Brandon Taylor
Optional: “Real Life is a New Kind of Campus Novel,” by Eren Orbey in The New Yorker (2020)

Graduation

Tues, May 7
The Group, Mary McCarthy (1963)
Optional: Mona Lisa Smile, dir. Mike Newell (2003)

The “Back to School” Discussion Group is led by Thomas J. Sojka, a PhD Candidate in History at Boston University. As someone who is now entering the 25th grade, he is well-qualified to discuss the collegiate experience.

His own doctoral dissertation explores the Bright Young People, elite sociability, and gossip in 1920s and 1930s Britain. In addition to his work as a perpetual student, he has dabbled as a critic – indeed, those who know him would unfavorably categorize him as one. His work has appeared in publications such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, Twentieth Century British History, the Journal of British Studies, and the European Review of History. But don’t let his CV fool you.