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Plaguing Jake
300 pages, Paperback
Published November 4, 2024
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October 4, 2024This is the tale of a questing scholar and a mystery (a rare edition of Ulysses is stolen) but, most of all, a satirical skewering of academia. Professor Jake Flynn steals the title, but Mary McGahern steals the show; she is a blisteringly smart young woman from a small Ontario town intent on getting a good education despite considerable odds.
When was the last time you laughed out loud over a passage in a book? How about multiple passages? In the best tradition of satire “Plaguing Jake” doles out laughs galore in its cutting satire and razor-sharp observations, mostly concerning academia which is spiraling on its inevitable trajectory during the e-age of education where YouTube trumps Shakespeare. The value of a liberal arts education has been lost. As Jake opines: “Now, our Professor John Turnbull…he used to absolutely love [Ulysses] before going over to the dark side of a cultural studies approach to literature.” (p 182) And the astute detective muses about the outcome: “…what are students learning today? What are they not learning? History, context, the very continuity we all need in our lives, and never more than nowadays? They don’t get to read and think about works that will give them pleasure and awe them.” (p 187)
Enroute to incising academia, Lynch sideswipes the inherent fallacies in the era of wokeness as he champions academic freedom. How can books from the past, like Huck Finn, be dismissed as “racist” when they offer lasting lessons? “If racism is the subject of the book, or even just a part of the story–fine, then that’s what should be studied. If doing so lessens racism and prejudice by as much as one hurt boy or girl—great.” (p 21/22) But read the best, he cautions.
I took Lynch’s Canadian Literature course back in the ‘90s and well recall reading the poetry of Duncan Campbell Scott, a great poet now justly vilified for his role in setting up residential schools. But Jake calls for “A little respect, please…; a little recognition of historical contingencies, past, present and future.” (349) This call is echoed when uBytown proposes scrapping the name of its library, John A McDonald. Says Jake: “What I hate are these revisionist idiots thinking they are better than John A. Macdonald and can sit in judgement of him. Why? What’s their justification? Because they’ve had the courage and vision to create not a new free nation but… safe spaces and trigger warnings and grief counselors and political leaders with no more sense of real historical grief than a plague has.” (p 348-9)
I was also delighted to encounter Stephen Leacock (in particular his “Sunshine sketches of a small town”) in this fine book; it solidified my believe that this novel should be a top contender for the Leacock Medal.
And to leave Lynch with the last word, a modest selection of a few of his bon mots:
His wife has “given up remarking my spare tire, which is one of the few benefits of growing old together: mutually throwing in the towel on physical attractiveness.” P 27
On teaching writing: “Refereeing the egos of illiterate yobs and yahoos.” P 73
On Justin Trudeau: “Daddy’s name, Mommy’s brain.”
When was the last time you laughed out loud over a passage in a book? How about multiple passages? In the best tradition of satire “Plaguing Jake” doles out laughs galore in its cutting satire and razor-sharp observations, mostly concerning academia which is spiraling on its inevitable trajectory during the e-age of education where YouTube trumps Shakespeare. The value of a liberal arts education has been lost. As Jake opines: “Now, our Professor John Turnbull…he used to absolutely love [Ulysses] before going over to the dark side of a cultural studies approach to literature.” (p 182) And the astute detective muses about the outcome: “…what are students learning today? What are they not learning? History, context, the very continuity we all need in our lives, and never more than nowadays? They don’t get to read and think about works that will give them pleasure and awe them.” (p 187)
Enroute to incising academia, Lynch sideswipes the inherent fallacies in the era of wokeness as he champions academic freedom. How can books from the past, like Huck Finn, be dismissed as “racist” when they offer lasting lessons? “If racism is the subject of the book, or even just a part of the story–fine, then that’s what should be studied. If doing so lessens racism and prejudice by as much as one hurt boy or girl—great.” (p 21/22) But read the best, he cautions.
I took Lynch’s Canadian Literature course back in the ‘90s and well recall reading the poetry of Duncan Campbell Scott, a great poet now justly vilified for his role in setting up residential schools. But Jake calls for “A little respect, please…; a little recognition of historical contingencies, past, present and future.” (349) This call is echoed when uBytown proposes scrapping the name of its library, John A McDonald. Says Jake: “What I hate are these revisionist idiots thinking they are better than John A. Macdonald and can sit in judgement of him. Why? What’s their justification? Because they’ve had the courage and vision to create not a new free nation but… safe spaces and trigger warnings and grief counselors and political leaders with no more sense of real historical grief than a plague has.” (p 348-9)
I was also delighted to encounter Stephen Leacock (in particular his “Sunshine sketches of a small town”) in this fine book; it solidified my believe that this novel should be a top contender for the Leacock Medal.
And to leave Lynch with the last word, a modest selection of a few of his bon mots:
His wife has “given up remarking my spare tire, which is one of the few benefits of growing old together: mutually throwing in the towel on physical attractiveness.” P 27
On teaching writing: “Refereeing the egos of illiterate yobs and yahoos.” P 73
On Justin Trudeau: “Daddy’s name, Mommy’s brain.”
January 22, 2025
Plaguing Jake is equal parts literary excellence and darn good read! It is also reminder of the sad reality that the best books by the best writers are not necessarily gracing the best seller lists—making its finding and reading all the more satisfying.
Plaguing Jake is both a coming of age and a becoming invisible because of age novel. Creating compelling characters at the opposite end of the experience and age spectrum, who just happen to share interests and values is not an easy literary or entertainment feat.
Satire in Plaguing Jake focuses on the mysterious theft of a rare and valuable edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses from the Film&Works Pod within the Digital Humanities Complex (once the English Department within the Faculty of Arts). The missing Ulysses mystery is solved but in the brave new era of Digital and Pod supremacy, it doesn’t much matter.
In his mental meandering as narrator, Jake innocuously references a new literary genre. The Academic Lament goes to the heart of the matter, exposing the serious intent of satire, how ever humorously presented. Departments of English throughout the Western world have died leaving Jake to despair both his own creeping invisibility as well as the literary canon to which he has devoted his life.
With this his eighth novel, Gerald Lynch is at the top of his literary game. I highly recommend Plaguing Jake and as advertised on the book jacket, it should be widely read. But alas, the merit of all novels is tempered by the increasing invisibility of readers demanding literary excellence. For those true readers who have had enough of bland, Plaguing Jake provides satisfying and pleasurable response. This reviewer and writer shares the author’s lament for the ‘pre-transmogrified’ world that is no more.
Plaguing Jake is both a coming of age and a becoming invisible because of age novel. Creating compelling characters at the opposite end of the experience and age spectrum, who just happen to share interests and values is not an easy literary or entertainment feat.
Satire in Plaguing Jake focuses on the mysterious theft of a rare and valuable edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses from the Film&Works Pod within the Digital Humanities Complex (once the English Department within the Faculty of Arts). The missing Ulysses mystery is solved but in the brave new era of Digital and Pod supremacy, it doesn’t much matter.
In his mental meandering as narrator, Jake innocuously references a new literary genre. The Academic Lament goes to the heart of the matter, exposing the serious intent of satire, how ever humorously presented. Departments of English throughout the Western world have died leaving Jake to despair both his own creeping invisibility as well as the literary canon to which he has devoted his life.
With this his eighth novel, Gerald Lynch is at the top of his literary game. I highly recommend Plaguing Jake and as advertised on the book jacket, it should be widely read. But alas, the merit of all novels is tempered by the increasing invisibility of readers demanding literary excellence. For those true readers who have had enough of bland, Plaguing Jake provides satisfying and pleasurable response. This reviewer and writer shares the author’s lament for the ‘pre-transmogrified’ world that is no more.
May 14, 2025
This one was definitely not for me.
A tale of two winding stories Plaguing Jake centres on Mary McGahern, an 18 year old farm girl from an Irish-Canadian background at the beginning of her academic career and Jake Flynn, an old school professor at the end of his.
Mostly though this is a supposed satire that rails against woke culture and how it's transformed academic scholarship. I don't think Lynch makes any of his points in a convincing and/or funny way. Also one of the least convincing parts is Mary, the so-called 18 year old. There are a lot of "exceptions" that are in story reasons for why she is basically tech illiterate and old-fashioned herself but she comes across as someone ripped from the 1950s (and even then she would be ridiculously prudish).
There is a sort of mystery at the centre of the work but that only takes up about 300 pages of this 500 page work (I don't know why Goodreads lists it as 300 pages, it's 500).
Lynch obviously has a passion for Canlit and scholarship and I do find the way this book was structured to be interesting. Everything else... a pass for me.
A tale of two winding stories Plaguing Jake centres on Mary McGahern, an 18 year old farm girl from an Irish-Canadian background at the beginning of her academic career and Jake Flynn, an old school professor at the end of his.
Mostly though this is a supposed satire that rails against woke culture and how it's transformed academic scholarship. I don't think Lynch makes any of his points in a convincing and/or funny way. Also one of the least convincing parts is Mary, the so-called 18 year old. There are a lot of "exceptions" that are in story reasons for why she is basically tech illiterate and old-fashioned herself but she comes across as someone ripped from the 1950s (and even then she would be ridiculously prudish).
There is a sort of mystery at the centre of the work but that only takes up about 300 pages of this 500 page work (I don't know why Goodreads lists it as 300 pages, it's 500).
Lynch obviously has a passion for Canlit and scholarship and I do find the way this book was structured to be interesting. Everything else... a pass for me.
September 30, 2024
According to the author, and his wife confirmed this to me - Plaguing Jake is pure satire. Of course it is, Stephen Leacock is referenced many times in the story.
I’ve never read satire before and if I studied it in school all traces of those lessons are lost. Like writing satire I think reading satire requires some skill as well. This lack of understanding satire fully might be why I only gave Plaguing Jake three stars. Had I recognized the satire and not assumed I could read this like any book, PJ might have received 4 stars.
So, don’t judge how you would like to read PJ based on my experience, if you know satire and are prepared to read it as such please do and give the author his due of being the reader who will ‘get’ what Gerald Lynch has written.
I’ve never read satire before and if I studied it in school all traces of those lessons are lost. Like writing satire I think reading satire requires some skill as well. This lack of understanding satire fully might be why I only gave Plaguing Jake three stars. Had I recognized the satire and not assumed I could read this like any book, PJ might have received 4 stars.
So, don’t judge how you would like to read PJ based on my experience, if you know satire and are prepared to read it as such please do and give the author his due of being the reader who will ‘get’ what Gerald Lynch has written.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews