Campusland

By: Scott Johnston

Narrated by: Casey Turner

Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

Joyous, fast and funny, Scott Johnston’s Campusland is a satiric howl at today’s elite educational institutions - from safe spaces to tribal infighting to the sheer sanctimony. A wickedly delightful audiobook that may remind you of Tom Wolfe and David Lodge.

Her room sucks. Her closet isn’t big enough for two weeks’-worth of outfits, much less her new Rag & Bone for fall. And there’s nothing worth posting. Cruel. To Lulu Harris - It Girl-in-the-Making - her first year at the ultra-competitive Ivy-like Devon University is a dreary impediment. If she’s fabulous and no one sees it, what’s the point?

To Eph Russell, who looks and sounds like an avatar of privilege (shh! - he’s anything but) Devon is heaven. All day to think and read and linger over a Welsh rarebit at The Faculty Club, not to mention teach English 240 where he gets to discuss all his 19th-century favorites, like Mark Twain. If Eph could just get tenure, he could stay forever, but there are landmines everywhere. 

In his seventh year at Devon, Red Wheeler is the alpha dog on top of Devon’s progressive hierarchy, the most woke guy on campus. But when his position is challenged, Red is forced to take measures. 

Before first term is halfway finished, Lulu bungles her social cache with her clubbable upperclass peers, and is forced to reinvent herself. Shedding her designer clothes, she puts on flannel and a brand-new persona: campus victim. For Lulu to claw her way back to the top, she’ll build a pyre and roast anyone in her way. 

Presiding over this ferment is Milton Strauss, Devon’s feckless president, who spends his days managing perpetually aggrieved students, scheming administrators, jealous professors, billionaire donors, and bumptious frat boys. He just can’t say yes fast enough. And what to do with Martika Malik-Adams? Isn’t her giant salary as vice-president of Diversity & Inclusion enough? 

All paths converge as privileged, marginalized, and radical students form identity alliances, sacrifice education for outrage, and push varied agendas of political correctness that drags every free thought of higher learning into the lower depths of an entitled underclass.  

©2019 Scott Johnston (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"This high-spirited, richly imagined, and brave novel is a delight to read...Smart and hilarious." (Kirkus Reviews)

Couldn’t listen to it!!! Hated the narrator!!!!

Terrible narrator!!! Couldn’t even get through the 1st chapter! Totally too weird...needed a male voice & not this female!! Doesn’t connect to content!! Sadly couldn’t take it

Narrator is AWFUL!

I thought the subject would be interesting. I tried listening to the book but the narrator is the worst narrator I have ever heard ... the worst by far. I could not get past the horrible narration. End of story.

Excruciating narrator

I'm sure the narrator is a fine person, and I don't wish her anything bad, but it is difficult to believe that she would not ruin any audiobook she read. I have never quit an audiobook due to a narrator before–and there have been plenty I didn't like–but I quit this one. Is there any chance this book will be redone for audible? I don't read novels with my eyes anymore–there are many ahead of this one if I did. I'd settle for a random well-read non-professional.

Hard to listen.

Each sentence is read ending on a low note. The stress on the punctuation is strong enough to signify a chapter end. It's distracting.

The story line is wickedly good. It points out what a mess the system is in for all the wrong reasons. Status is everything.

Painfully Annoying Performance

Casey Turner's amazingly annoying reading of this otherwise well done book, was so excruciating that a point, I just couldn't listen to her any longer. Speaking in an extremely boring monotone, she ended nearly every sentence on an up tone, as if each sentence was a question rather than a statement. Listening became maddening in very short order.

I bought a hard copy of book to get through it.

Having attended a liberal arts college during the late sixties and early seventies, I found the storyline, hilarious. The book itself is a very well written satirical look at life on an elite liberal arts university campus, today.

I'd encourage anyone who wants a glimpse at how outlandishly angry, pampered and intolerant college students have been molded today, to read this book. It is interesting, thought provoking and entertaining, all at once.

Just buy the book and READ it, rather than listening to this annoying Performance!

Shows how our University system will likely fail.

if you spent any time in the University setting, you will totally get this slightly apocalyptic tale. The story shows what could happen if some of the politically correct narratives reached a fairly logical conclusion. it definitely pulls you in and is an interesting story and you begin to care about the characters. This book is for mature audiences.

A Must Read

This is professional-grade satire of our tempest-in-a-teacup academics. Fans of Charlotte Simmons (Tom Wolfe) and the old W&L favorite, The Undergraduate Almanac, will love this acerbic take on modern academia. It is refreshing to know that there are still some out there with the chops to point out just how stupid woke-ism really is. 3 cheers for Johnston.

Funny, but all too accurate

Hilarious distillation of what has been going wrong with higher "education" today. Read before college.

Prescient!

Scott Johnson absolutely nailed the often contradictory atmosphere that pervades education and society today. Magnificent!

Too close to truth to be funny....great tale.

Great satire. Well written. Didn’t want to put it down. The people I know who SHOULD read this book are too “smart “ to do so. The one criticism I have is your choice for reader. For a good part of the book every sentence sounds like a question or the recitation of a list. It’s more annoying than you can imagine. Thanks, Sidney Dicson