The Devil and Webster by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Devil and Webster

Jean Hanff Korelitz

Never was the road to hell paved with better intentions! Set on a fictional New England campus called Webster College, this is a devilish satire on the modern day student protest culture and identity politics. When freedom of expression is under attack from calls to censor and ‘no platform’ speakers by professing offence against views considered politically incorrect, this is a timely and equally pertinent subject for the UK as well as America.

Extract
Talk, she wanted to say. Open your fucking mouths with their years of orthodontia and use those expensively educated voices to articulate your pathetic complaints about this ... this halcyon, evolved, rarified, creative and intellectual college campus, where you are free to learn and nap and make things and have sex and get high and change your fucking gender even, and clean water comes out of the tap and you wave your school ID under a scanner to help yourself to smorgasbords of food (meat! meat alternative! vegan! lactose-sensitive! nut-free! gluten free!) and all we expect of you is that you pass your classes and don’t hurt anyone else. But she didn’t say these things. Of course she didn’t say them.
Parallels
  • The Secret History by Donna Tarrt
  • On Beauty by Zadie Smith