Bluffworld

by Patrick Evans

A satirical journey through academia, exposing pretense and the search for meaning in a world of bluff.Can we trust what we never quite knew about because we never quite got around to reading it? Is it safe to rely on what we overhear in the university common-room? In Bluffworld, a master-bluffer's bildung unfolds, from plagiarizing student essays to lecturing on Moby-Dick. Learn to spot horseshit, trigger verbal smokescreens, and sense the sublime power of unoriginality.

As our hero confronts the corporate university, will he maintain his facade, or will the truth be revealed? This humorous and insightful novel targets readers interested in literary fiction, academic satire, and social commentary. Discover the inevitable terminus of a Meister-Bullshit-Künstler. Time for another all-staff barbecue!

377 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2021

About the author

Patrick Evans lives in Christchurch and has taught New Zealand literature at the University of Canterbury since 1978.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific. It’s a satire on University careers and recent trends in management. Plenty of room for humour there! It is over the top, which makes it funny, but also close to true, and it is imaginative. It has a lot of footnotes, which whine about the author and mock him. They are very funny. I found it better to read a chapter through and then the footnotes, so as not to break the flow. Although it is based on the English department at a slightly disguised University of Canterbury, as the narrator says, “every academic department in the world has someone like me.”

[Helen Cummings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was so hilarious and would appeal to to anyone who had worked in an educational institution or a university.