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To Be Marquette
In this compelling campus novel, a college freshman exposes hidden secrets as she fights for environmental justice in Marquette.
Arriving in Marquette for her freshman year at Northern Michigan University, Molly enrolls in Dr. Robinson’s ecology studies class, hoping to learn more about the natural world and how to protect the planet from human impact. She befriends her classmates, Dr. Robinson’s Crusoes, who share her love of hiking, camping, and building bonfires on the shores of Lake Superior.
Together, Molly and the Crusoes protest the development of Project ELF, a Navy program that is installing a series of extremely low-frequency transmitters across the Great Lakes. The US government claims Project ELF will help the country defend itself in the event of a nuclear invasion, but Upper Peninsula residents fear the communications lines will disrupt the natural environment that they hold sacred.
Initially preoccupied with the contingencies of freshman year—roommate problems, dormitory life, and dating—Molly begins to sense that the Project ELF protests may mask a more problematic dynamic between the students and faculty. As she struggles to find her purpose, Molly uncovers layers of lies and misunderstandings about campus life, Project ELF, and her time in Marquette that make her question her place in the community.
As in other notable campus novels, like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History or Elif Batuman’s The Idiot, Sharon Dilworth’s To Be Marquette portrays an undergraduate narrator groping for meaning in a world where personal transformation takes place alongside conflicting cultural paradigms.
Arriving in Marquette for her freshman year at Northern Michigan University, Molly enrolls in Dr. Robinson’s ecology studies class, hoping to learn more about the natural world and how to protect the planet from human impact. She befriends her classmates, Dr. Robinson’s Crusoes, who share her love of hiking, camping, and building bonfires on the shores of Lake Superior.
Together, Molly and the Crusoes protest the development of Project ELF, a Navy program that is installing a series of extremely low-frequency transmitters across the Great Lakes. The US government claims Project ELF will help the country defend itself in the event of a nuclear invasion, but Upper Peninsula residents fear the communications lines will disrupt the natural environment that they hold sacred.
Initially preoccupied with the contingencies of freshman year—roommate problems, dormitory life, and dating—Molly begins to sense that the Project ELF protests may mask a more problematic dynamic between the students and faculty. As she struggles to find her purpose, Molly uncovers layers of lies and misunderstandings about campus life, Project ELF, and her time in Marquette that make her question her place in the community.
As in other notable campus novels, like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History or Elif Batuman’s The Idiot, Sharon Dilworth’s To Be Marquette portrays an undergraduate narrator groping for meaning in a world where personal transformation takes place alongside conflicting cultural paradigms.
280 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 12, 2025
"'To be Marquette' was to be rid of the person I had been and to embrace someone completely different. Up there, everything seemed possible. In Marquette, it was possible to live that close to the natural world - to live that close to beauty."
I really wished I liked this more. I would be an ideal reader from many perspectives - the novel is set at Northern Michigan University in the 1970s/80s, and features many Marquette locales familiar to me - some of which (like Vango's and Togo's restaurants on Third Street) are even beloved haunts. But the central character - a young female first-person narrator - just didn't interest me; things happen to her in the course of the book but she never seems to show any real introspection and doesn't achieve any significant "development."
The young men in the book aren't very interesting either. To be honest, I had a hard time telling them apart. Which may have been the author's intention, but it doesn't make for a satisfying story.
Something peculiar: there are two characters in the book who bear the names of real Marquette people who I personally knew in the 1990s. These figures have many of the personal attributes of their originals, but there are also certain deviations or inventions on the author's part. Neither of these people is still alive today - in 2025 - but it still seems a little odd to come across their names in a work of creative fiction.
I really wished I liked this more. I would be an ideal reader from many perspectives - the novel is set at Northern Michigan University in the 1970s/80s, and features many Marquette locales familiar to me - some of which (like Vango's and Togo's restaurants on Third Street) are even beloved haunts. But the central character - a young female first-person narrator - just didn't interest me; things happen to her in the course of the book but she never seems to show any real introspection and doesn't achieve any significant "development."
The young men in the book aren't very interesting either. To be honest, I had a hard time telling them apart. Which may have been the author's intention, but it doesn't make for a satisfying story.
Something peculiar: there are two characters in the book who bear the names of real Marquette people who I personally knew in the 1990s. These figures have many of the personal attributes of their originals, but there are also certain deviations or inventions on the author's part. Neither of these people is still alive today - in 2025 - but it still seems a little odd to come across their names in a work of creative fiction.
September 18, 2024
TLDR: I’m obsessed.
My favorite book of 2024 so far. The characters are so timeless and I very much connected with the environmental aspect of the story.
There are so many stand out scenes throughout the story, and I was caught from the very beginning. I don’t want to spoil anything, but Molly’s boy troubles are transcendent, and the complex relationship with her professor is gripping.
There’s so much I want to say, but I think it’s better for everyone else to read and find out. I want to think that’s this story changed me permanently.
My favorite book of 2024 so far. The characters are so timeless and I very much connected with the environmental aspect of the story.
There are so many stand out scenes throughout the story, and I was caught from the very beginning. I don’t want to spoil anything, but Molly’s boy troubles are transcendent, and the complex relationship with her professor is gripping.
There’s so much I want to say, but I think it’s better for everyone else to read and find out. I want to think that’s this story changed me permanently.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews