Around Harvard Square

by C.J. Farley

Race, class, and hormones combine and combust when a Harvard freshman and his two friends attempt to join the staff of the Harpoon, the school’s iconic humor magazine.

Tosh Livingston, superstar student-athlete from small-town USA, thinks he’s made it big as a rising freshman at Harvard University. Not so fast! Once on campus, he’s ensnared in a frenzied competition to win a spot on Harvard’s legendary humor magazine, the Harpoon. Tosh soon finds that joining the Harpoon is a weird and surprisingly dangerous pursuit. He faces off against a secret society of super-rich kids, gets schooled by a philosophy professor who loves flunking everyone, and teams up with a genius student-cartoonist with an agenda of her own. Along the way, Tosh and his band of misfit freshman friends unearth long-buried mysteries about the Ivy League that will rock the Ivory Tower and change their lives forever . . . if they can survive the semester.

With its whip-smart humor and fast-paced narrative, Around Harvard Square will appeal to readers of all ages interested in exploring the complicated roles that race and class play in higher education.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary, Dark Academia, College

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2019

Reviews

[Nyawira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start by saying, just based on the premise I really wanted to like this book. As a black college student attending a predominantly white institution (PWI), I was very excited to read this book. At first I was very on board, the characters were likable and diverse, there was a bit of intrigue and mystery, further encouraged by a plot twist I totally didn’t see coming. I felt the college experience was represented well, especially with Tech’s attitude toward discussing race. The second person parts of the story were interesting and different from other novels, so I was excited to see where that would lead. Then the story became increasingly confusing and the satire started to fold in on itself until I, as the reader, was left to untangle a very large knot of deceit and false intentions. I was very disappointed in the ending, as it felt rushed and did not feel like the ending that the buildup deserved.

I got this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review!

[Eboni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Around Harvard Square wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I did enjoy the camaraderie between Tosh, Lao, and Meera. Three complete misfits trying to survive their freshman year at Harvard. The story was strong by giving each character a great background and a personality that was easy to see. Even the background characters were detailed in a way that felt like a movie. Where the story fell off for me is the unrealistic way the characters some time spoke. It became a bit of a chore to read some of their conversations. It was also a bit predictable to know that the bulliedTilfer would become a force to be reckoned with in the end.

All in all, I enjoyed the book, but only as a one time read.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliant?

[Kimberley · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the start, this book showed a lot of promise but then it seemed to veer horribly off track. By the time I arrived at its unsatisfying end, I was confused and uncertain as to what its actual point was in the first place.

Tosh is a former high school basketball star whose career is cut short by injury. However, thanks to his intelligence, he's able to secure a spot at Harvard University, on the cusp of Y2K. In order to further secure his future prospects, he decides his best bet is to land a spot on Harvard's much maligned, but equally glorified, humor magazine The Harpoon. However, once he's begun his quest, the doors of reality open wide and he discovers the more sinister side of Harvard's elite.

This is a satirical look at how privilege is pervasive and often generational. It also shines a bright light on how being a minority is always a roadblock to respect--even when your place on the economic spectrum is established.

Each of the people Tosh meets along the way--from his eccentric, pot-smoking, roommate (Laos), to Meera (who's apparently asexual but whose asexuality isn't respectfully given much of an explanation), to "The Chair" (a mentor of sorts)--is considered a minority in one way or another. Their place in the world is one of an "outsider", and the reasons for that are considered legitimate, as far as the "establishment" is concerned.

One of the more important characters is one whose always referenced in the second person, to the point of my often being confused as to when she was actually present, and she becomes a sort of siren for Tosh; in that her presence is at times his motivation for taking serious jumps in his own development.

There are tons of characters in this book and each espouses his/her own degree of wisdom regarding the way the world works and how each particular cog fits. That said, the journey from beginning to end gets muddled, around the halfway point, and morphs into something that feels a bit like a crusade or a tribute.

I have no idea.

What I do know is that switch took away from what began as something promising.

In the end, it's written intelligently, with a strong message about sexuality, privilege, race, and poverty, but it tried to execute far too much with too little and that made for something that didn't translate well on the page.

Thank you to Edelweiss+ for this Advanced eGalley. Opinion is my own

[Scott Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not really sure as to what I think about this novel. I'm not terribly sure if I even liked it or even really knew what the overall point was either. And yet, Christopher John Farley's collegiate satire, in which a trio of Harvard Freshman friends (a one-eyed Chinese student wary of the inevitable robot takeover, a feminist and former Bollywood actress and our hero, an African-American former high school basketball star) attempt to gain entrance onto the staff of the legendary Harvard satirical magazine, was compulsively readable and kept me fully engaged from one end to the other.

It is an odd novel to say the least as Farley, through a rapid, striking prose that suggests J.D. Salinger merged with Paul Beatty (but nowhere near as incendiary as Betty's work), covers nothing less than campus hijinks and pungent pranks, roommate quandaries and powerful friendships, massive coursework, Philosophy classes and theories abound, as well as major themes of systemic racism and sexism, cultural appropriation, the pros and cons of P.C. culture within comedy, class warfare, rampant White privilege, Alzheimer's disease and mental illness, two deaths, and existentialism. Phew!

Somehow, it does work...sort of...as I could not help but to ponder as I finished the book, just what was that all about?

[willowdog · Rating 2 out of 5]

The construct of the first year in an ivy league college is by definition filled with anxiety, discovery, and change. It's ripe for satirical observation. Farley sometimes succeeds in this by looking at the characters who attempt to fit in and yet remain outsiders. However, one never believes the intelligent characters can act in this fashion. The situations are so outlandish. In the end, the satire is taken to the extreme and the ending unremarkable. I also thought that the technique of the author to end chapters with readers guessing the outcome of a conversation or situation was annoying.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for this electronic copy.

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Around Harvard Square by C.J. Farley

Set in the 1990's the story centers around Tosh, a student who decides he wants to be on the staff of the "Harvard Harpoon". With a mix of diversified friends, at Harvard University he sees first hand how students of different races and social (economic) standing live.

The story moves at a past pace, with attention to detail, engaging dialog , humor and well developed characters. I liked the differences each character brought to the story, and how they interacted with each other. Overall I enjoyed Around Harvard Square and feel others will as well. A definite good read.

[catlord airgirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Google Translate should be co-author of this book, because that's how Farley wrote these preposterous, half-gibberish Chinese sentences. Was there not one halfway decent Chinese speaker around he could consult?!?

你会说语吗
"Can you speak?"

这个地方是封闭的女士
"This place is closed[,] lady."

我的朋友是一个疯狂的女人, 所以你应该让我们在她在这里造成一个场景之前
"My friend is a crazy woman, so you should let us [in] before she causes a scene here."

我知道普通话, 因为我学习了五年的语言
"I know Mandarin, because I studied five years of the language."

[Lynn Loves Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was tough. It was a hard start, and I almost put it down, but then I wanted to find out more about the characters. It tries really hard to be funny, and all of the quotes on the cover say that it is. There are moments, but it feels more tragi-comic than anything. I did not feel satisfied with the ending. This book feels like that confusing, sarcastic friend that you had in college that you spent time with occasionally.

[MJ Beaufrand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well. This was an odd one. Hilarious; wonderfully satiric. There was so much to admire especially in the dialogue, which, to me, made it seem as though he were writing a movie. Farley is clearly brilliant. I kept hoping that aside from the dialogue, he would go deeper into character than he actually did. I won't say what happened in the ending, but that the tone was what I'd hoped for throughout the rest of the book. As it is, it felt tacked on.

[mandyfujita · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is of Tosh Livingston's life as a freshman at Harvard University. He was a superstar basketball player in high school from a small town in upstate New York. Part of his adventure tells us of his journey to be part of the staff of the campus' prestigious humor magazine called the Harpoon. Many famous people worked on thos magazine when they went to Harvard.

[Katie Bruell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was funny and smart. The metaphors were great. I'm not sure how it ended, though! And I didn't get even half of the references and in jokes. Still, an enjoyable read, if occasionally heavy-handed.

[Alicia · Rating 1 out of 5]

The audience is that in between-- not necessarily YA because they're freshman in college with the humor of academics but not necessarily adult either. I felt dumb reading the book because much of the humor wasn't my kind of humor nor did I understand all of the nuances.

It didn't work for me.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book because of how the author Christopher John Farley used COMEDY to get across a couple of serious points like social justice, and equality between poor and rich people.

[Sonia Renaud · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Robin K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had nice elements but it didn’t work for me. I’ve decided that it might only work for people who went to Harvard in the 90s who would enjoy the inside perspective.

[Louise Vaillancourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay, it was fun! Got me thinking about joining a college newspaper which I did!

[Brianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so, so promising at the beginning and became increasingly so confusing and seemingly pointless towards the end that I was almost thankful it was over. I'm not interested in philosophy at all, so I didn't care about all the philosophical themes. If you're interested in philosophy, wonderful! I just felt plain stupid reading all of their philosophical conversations. Small thing to nitpick: but I absolutely hated how an androgynous student was referred to as "she/he," considering how politically aware the book was in other areas. I was also struggling to understand what the plot was, and I realized I was 50% into the novel and still had no idea what the plot was and I still kind of don't. I don't like how the character's struggles were revealed and none of them "paid off." The reasoning behind why Tosh hated his nickname "Tech" was so anti-climatic it was almost impossible to think that was a real plot device at all. I hated the fact that Tosh spoke in the second person when referring to Zippa because she didn't seem that special to me at all. I also hated the fact that a lot of the plot later on in the story was about avenging the death of a person they all felt was so important, but they rarely interacted with that character at all, so it was hard for me to understand why they would go to such lengths to avenge their death for someone they only interacted with a small handful of times! The whole storyline with Tosh's father and sister was so pointless and was never resolved or even really spoken about. The relationship between Zippa and Tosh was too much of a stretch for me. I don't even know how to explain in a new way how pointless so many scenes seemed to me. I spent the majority of the book thinking "What the hell is going on?" and "Does this actually happen at Harvard?"

The book wasn't all bad, and I'd hate to focus on the negatives. I was interested in this book because I, too, am a first-year university student who's a person of colour. Also, it seemed like a new YA dark academia book. Also, Boston is one of my favourite cities and it's proximity to Havard is one of the reasons why. Harvard Yard is so beautiful, and beginning introduction to Havard Yard brought back all my memories of all the times I've visited the campus and taken pictures of the statues and bookstores and architecture. Another thing I loved is learning so much more about Harvard culture. Some of the stuff in the book seemed absolutely crazy and I'm not sure if that actually happens at Harvard but I wouldn't be surprised if it does. Learning about the real Crimson, Lampoon, and Final Clubs were all interesting to me. But the whole seriousness of the membership to the clubs was so wild, I would be scared to join any club at Harvard if they're as serious as in this novel. Also learning about the Secret Court was so interesting!!!! Honestly, I just want a whole book about the Secret Court lol. I also love how political the students were. It was such an accurate representation of students going into college and coming out political activists, talking about capitalism and intersectionality! While the things I loved were definitely perks, they weren't good enough to make me like the overall book, which is unfortunate because the story is so promising.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

AROUND HARVARD SQUARE by C.J. Farley.
I received an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) from Akashic Books for an honest and unbiased review.
“Tosh Livingston, superstar student-athlete from small-town USA, thinks he’s made it big as a rising freshman at Harvard University. Once on campus, he’s ensnared in a frenzied competition to win a spot on Harvard’s legendary humor magazine, the Harpoon. Tosh soon finds that joining the Harpoon is a weird and surprisingly dangerous pursuit.” (Press Kit)

AROUND HARVARD SQUARE is a coming-of-age story; a story about friendship; a story about class and elitism; a story about colleges with their faults and hypocrisy and scandal laid bare. It is very self-deprecating, humorous, witty and fast-paced.
It is filled with interesting and bizarre characters - Tosh ‘Tech’ Livingston, Lao, Meera, D2 - Dorian & Davis, Professor Hyacinth ‘The Chair’ Bell, Tilfer Peerpont, Spooner Peerpont, Morven S. Morlington (editor of the Magenta), Festus the Hummingbird and Zippa (Zipporah Windward) of ‘ram pa pa pam’ fame.
It is filled with interesting and bizarre terms and events - Ubersectionality, Final Clubs, Comps, Compers, the Harpoon (a Harvard student-run publication), pranks gone amuck, illegal disposal of sewage, suicide, corruption, inept college programs and personnel, vandalism, great wealth, prejudice, racism, sexism, student activism and inhumane treatment of hummingbirds.
There were many witty and memorable quotes:
“Lao gave us a look so sheepish it could have been sheared.” (Loved that one)
“I had arrived at the one place where I could be exactly the person I wanted to be: anybody else.”
“That’s how institutions survive - they change people who think they’re changing the institution.”

I think I am a bit too old to be able to understand this book. There. I’ve owned up to that. I mean, I get that it is part farce. I know what a farce is - a theater piece marked by humorous characterizations and improbable plots; a ludicrous show; a mockery. And I get that it is part satire - irony, derision, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity. And I get that it is comedy. What is the book when it is a sum of all three parts?
For me, it was part laughing out loud, part confusion, part admiration of the author’s cleverness and imagination, part sadness and part irritation.
You see, just when I was beginning to ‘get’ what was going on and understand the characters better and glad that that smug creep, Spooner Peerpont was ‘going to get his’, I realized with a sinking feeling that I had been royally, mercilessly, Harpooned. And it hurt.

I don’t want to spoil the ending. It is a bit complicated (or it was for me).
I did like reading about the author, C.J. Farley. He is a very renowned author and editor.
I did enjoy reading AROUND HARVARD SQUARE and would recommend it. I can say that my freshman year at a midwestern state university was absolutely nothing like this! (I might be glad about that!)