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Wait, This Is Satire?

May 26, 2010

If you've already read and re-read Richard Russo's Straight Man so many times that the book's binding has come undone, you might want to give a new novel from Daniel Greenberg called Tech Transfer a try. The New York Times' Nicholas Wade calls it "a mordant satire about scientists and universities and how they do business." In the novel, the trustees of a university select a new president who "learns the folly of challenging the tenured faculty on any of their sacrosanct, non-negotiable issues," Wade says, and those untouchable issues include just about everything: pay raises every year, lenient conflict-of-interest rules, and indulgent disciplinary procedures.

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