Getting Straight

by Ken Kolb

Age discoloring and right edge has writing. Spine has some creasing, front cover has a crease on right, top and back cover has a small tear on bottom left corner with a few small punctures. No other marks and intact. Ships very quickly and packaged carefully!

Genres: Fiction

205 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this novel before I knew it was a movie. Later, when taking a course at UVa in the theory and structure of comedy, I chose Getting Straight as the example I'd use in applying and illustrating the ideas covered in the course. (Got an A+ on that paper, as I recall.) I found the story follows a classical formula that came down to us from the ancient Greeks, e.g., the humor exists side-by-side with, and draws its strength from, potentially dire real-world problems -- such as a boss’s threat to hang his employee “by the balls from the highest flagpole in the vicinity.” I thought it curious that the main character, Harry Bailey, has the same name as Jimmy Stewart’s character in It’s a Wonderful Life, which is also the name of the genial innkeeper who accompanies the pilgrims in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. (BTW, the 1970 film starring Elliott Gould, with a young Harrison Ford in a supporting role, is ok, but nowhere near as good as the book. The memorable scene in which Harry Bailey intentionally flunks his oral exam is so much better in the book.)

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enormously funny and intelligent comedy about everyman Harry Bailey, pursuing an MA in English and a teaching certification while also trying to hold down a temporary gig organizing special events at a department store. Anyone with a passing knowledge of English literature would really appreciate it. Why this isn't considered a classic '60s novel like Charles Webb's The Graduate is beyond me. Quite a bit different from the 1970 Elliott Gould/Candice Bergen movie that was based on this novel.

[Kathy Kaylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was hard to find. I read it in the 70's and I guess it wasn't as popular with the population at large as it was with me. I identified with this guy trying to transition form college where he majored in pot and partying to holding down a job and facing real life.

[Thom Swennes · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a time of war, it was a time of peace, it was a time of protest and revolution, it was a time of love; free love. I am referring to the 1960’s, a time of psychedelic posters, paisley print, and flower power. The Cold War was at its peak, the Vietnam War at its worse, and increasing discontent on the home front combined to make this one of a unique decade in American history. The halls of higher education also underwent a boom. More students were enrolled, for various reasons, in colleges and universities than any other time in the country’s history. College graduates were being turned out faster than the workforce could consume them, raising the unemployment level. A logical, if not practical, the solution to this growing dilemma, is to re-enter the halls of higher learning and aim for a Master’s or even a Ph.D. Degree, in the hope that the employment waters would be more welcoming sometime in the future.
Harry Bailey was such an educated fish that decided to jump back into the pond. If he had a workable plan, things might have been different. If he would have conformed and adjusted to the status quo, he might have made the transition without any problems, but it would have made a less interesting story.
The Twenty-First Century has witnessed a time-travel phenomenon. Since the publication of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, countless authors have followed her lead and attempted to reach her panicle of success. This book, though not of the time-travel genre, magically sends the reader back in time. I was back into a world that didn’t know where it was going but knew where it had been. To a time that saw many wonders and detained many fears.