[DAI]∎ Descargar Gratis Poetic Justice Kate Fansler Amanda Cross 9780449007037 Books

Poetic Justice Kate Fansler Amanda Cross 9780449007037 Books

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Poetic Justice Kate Fansler Amanda Cross 9780449007037 Books

This is my first Kate Fansler novel. I picked it because it takes place during a period of student protests (which is where we are now) and because I was a professor in New York at the time. The book reminded me of a classic Golden Age mystery (think Dorothy Sayers), except that instead of a (to me) semi-mythical setting in 1920's London or at an Oxford college or an English country house, it mythicized a world that I had actually lived in. The professors in this thinly-disguised Columbia University English Department made impossibly erudite speeches to each other in dialogues that reminded me of Restoration comedy,full of allusions and aphorisms (sometimes quite striking). Some readers may find the prose style daunting, and I was somewhat put off by the fact that there was a landslide of quotations from the later works of W. H. Auden, which I don't happen to enjoy as much as his earlier work. And oh yes, it's a murder mystery. As a mystery, it works well enough. I found the motive implausible, but so what? Since when were the solutions to Golden Age mysteries supposed to be likely? I did like the proto-feminist hero(ine), though both she and her creator seem like terrible snobs (again, characteristic of the genre). With all my reservatioins noted, I was still fascinated.


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Poetic Justice Kate Fansler Amanda Cross 9780449007037 Books Reviews

This novel is set during the turbulent student uprisings. Kate is charged with saving the University College, sort of like NYU's New School, primarily for adults returning to finish their education. The powers that be do not want the school to continue, the reasons are not clear. The leader of the movement is Professor Cudlipp, a stereotypical academic snob, he appears in all of these novels in one form or another. Predictably, he is murdered and Kate and Reed are bound to find out the truth.
I usually enjoy these academic mysteries, but this one is just too dated for my taste. The radicals of this time were the repressed conservative professors of my time, and this mystery doesn't age as well as her others. The writing and mystery are still fine, but the setting is old fashioned, but not enough to be historical or quaint yet.
This is one of Amanda Cross's best, wittiest, best conceived mysteries. The characters are well drawn and three dimensional. Some of her descriptions were so true to type that I laughed until I cried. It may be her most literary novel. Each chapter is introduced by a quotation from the great English poet, W.H. Auden and Auden is present --though generally in absentia -- throughout the novel. The mysterious death of one of the University's most bigoted faculty members is presented against an accurate picture of University politics, during the Columbia student revolt of the last '60s. (The author, AKA Carolyn G. Heilbrun, is Professor Emeritus from Columbia, where she was awarded an endowed Chair in Humanities after teaching Victorian literature for many years.) Lionel Trilling, the great American literary critic and scholar appears, thinly disguised as "Frederick Cremance." Trilling/Cremance coined and popularized the expression "the life of the mind." Heinlein was one of his students, though he doubted that women were capable of having a "life of the mind." As Kate Fansler she has an opportunity to challenge him at long last. The writing is graceful, literary and tasteful.
Professor Kate Fansler teaches Victorian Literature at a NYC University. I always get a kick out of the political machinations in academia. They may tend to think of themselves above or at least apart from the sordid world, but, heavens, insularity can breed the worst traits, just like in any family.

It's 1970, the year after students took over the administration offices and real and imaginary changes have been made or proposed to make the university more accountable to the students, or at least more attentive to their gentle murmerings. Surprisingly, in light of that, the new battle is about whether or not to close the University College, an adjunct school that is geared more to the adult student returning to college.

Feelings among the faculty and administration are strong on both sides. Does the University College dilute the brand for prospective 18 year-olds, and, more importantly, the parents and alumni with the checkbooks? Or, does the College increase the brand with a new type of dedicated student more often making sacrifices to get her degree?

Professor Jeremiah Cudlipp, Chairman of the University English Department, is one of those adamant of the closure. And it just so happens that he dies at the faculty party celebrating Kate's engagement to Reed Amhearst, of the D.A.'s office. Cudlipp is allergic to aspirin, and someone managed to slip him two. And how is that tied into the elevators suddenly stopping between floors when they were trying to rush Cudlipp to the hospital?

Kate and Reed investigate. "Poetic Justice" is very intelligently written and also made me laugh out loud at the description of one student's dissertation. The poet W.H. Auden figures throughout the book, as he's a favorite of Kate's, even though he wasn't born until after Queen Victoria had passed
"Between those happenings that prefigure it
And those that happen in its anamnesis
Occurs the Event, but that no human wit
Can recognize until all happening ceases."

I leave you with two examples of Cross' superb command of the English language
"Kate, who, when she was really offended, had to think with both hands for a fortnight before becoming possessed of a satisfactory retort, was fortunately saved...."

"We cannot guess the outcome of our actions - how often I have said that in discussions with students. Which is why our actions must always be acceptable in themselves, and not as strategies. Kant put it differently and better."

Recommended reading!

Happy Reader
It is always fun to read a Kate Fansler book. The language is marvelous and one of the things I most enjoy.
Anyone who loves a good, cozy literary mystery will love Amanda Cross.
Love that it's a small lightweight papaerback, easy to carry anywhere.
Thanks very much. I am enjoy the book very much.
This book reminds me of two truths that the more English departments may change, the more they stay the same, and that academic arguments are so fierce because so little is at stake.
This is my first Kate Fansler novel. I picked it because it takes place during a period of student protests (which is where we are now) and because I was a professor in New York at the time. The book reminded me of a classic Golden Age mystery (think Dorothy Sayers), except that instead of a (to me) semi-mythical setting in 1920's London or at an Oxford college or an English country house, it mythicized a world that I had actually lived in. The professors in this thinly-disguised Columbia University English Department made impossibly erudite speeches to each other in dialogues that reminded me of Restoration comedy,full of allusions and aphorisms (sometimes quite striking). Some readers may find the prose style daunting, and I was somewhat put off by the fact that there was a landslide of quotations from the later works of W. H. Auden, which I don't happen to enjoy as much as his earlier work. And oh yes, it's a murder mystery. As a mystery, it works well enough. I found the motive implausible, but so what? Since when were the solutions to Golden Age mysteries supposed to be likely? I did like the proto-feminist hero(ine), though both she and her creator seem like terrible snobs (again, characteristic of the genre). With all my reservatioins noted, I was still fascinated.