The Lecturer's Tale A Novel [Paperback]

Nelson Humboldt is a visiting adjunct English lecturer at prestigious Midwest University, until he is unceremoniously fired one autumn morning. Minutes after the axe falls, his right index finger is severed in a freak accident. Doctors manage to reattach the finger, but when the bandages come off, Nelson realizes that he has acquired a strange powerhe can force his will onto others with a touch of his finger. And so he obtains an extension on the lease of his university-owned townhouse and picks up two sections of freshman composition, saving his career from utter ruin. But soon these victories seem inconsequential, and Nelson's finger burns for even greater glory. Now the Midas of academia wonders if he can attain what every struggling assistant professor and visiting lecturer covetstenure.The Lecturer's Taleis a pitch-perfect blend of satire and horror.

James Hynesis the author ofThe Wild Colonial BoyandPublish and Perish, aNew York TimesNotable Book. His television criticism has appeared inMother Jonesand theUtne Reader. He lives in Austin, Texas.

The most devasting satirical portrait of contemporary academic life I've ever read. Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

[Hynes] writes so brilliantly, inventively, and lovingly about the sins of academe that the reader ends up, like Milton's Satan, even more eager to serve in Hell. Chronicle of Higher Education

A full-blown academic farce. Hynes has hit on a brilliant ploy in weaving Gothic horror with contemporary lit crit. Tobin Harshaw, The New York Times Book Review

Hynes bathes his ship of overeducated fools in such luscious detail (the trends! the allusions! the hairstyles!) that he vaults to the head of the crowded class of academic satirists. Kirkus Reviews

Near perfection . . .The Lecturer's Taleis an arch academic horror story where no chain-rattling ghost could hl3À