Publish and Perish

I picked up James Hynes’ Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror as a result of it being recommended by the photographer Philip Greenspun. He called it: “the ultimate airplane read for anyone in the university world.”

I was expected it to be a light and humourous mockery of academia, written in a faux horror style. As comedy, horror, and writing in general it falls flat. The characters are boring, the plots are either predictable or uninteresting, and the jabs at academia lack poignancy. All the book really had going for it was that it was a quick read. In my ongoing efforts to clear the stacks of unread books on my dining room table, I decided to clear some of the light fare first.

I would not recommend this book.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. Between 2005 and 2007 I completed an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. I worked for five years for the Canadian federal government, including completing the Accelerated Economist Training Program, and then completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto in 2023. View all posts by Milan