The Devil and Webster, Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Devil and Webster, Jean Hanff Korelitz
1 Rating(s)
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The Devil and Webster

Author: Jean Hanff Korelitz

Narrator: Kate Burton

Unabridged: 11 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/21/2017


Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of You Should Have Known and Admission, a twisty new novel about a college president, a baffling student protest, and some of the most hot-button issues on today's college campuses.

Naomi Roth is the first female president of Webster College, a once conservative school now known for producing fired-up, progressive graduates. So Naomi isn't surprised or unduly alarmed when Webster students begin the fall semester with an outdoor encampment around "The Stump"-a traditional campus gathering place for generations of student activists-to protest a popular professor's denial of tenure. A former student radical herself, Naomi admires the protestors' passion, especially when her own daughter, Hannah, joins their ranks.

Then Omar Khayal, a charismatic Palestinian student with a devastating personal history, emerges as the group's leader, and the demonstration begins to consume Naomi's life, destabilizing Webster College from the inside out. As the crisis slips beyond her control, Naomi must take increasingly desperate measures to protect her friends, colleagues, and family from an unknowable adversary.

Touching on some of the most topical and controversial concerns at the heart of our society, this riveting novel examines the fragility that lies behind who we think we are-and what we think we believe.

About Jean Hanff Korelitz

Jean Hanff Korelitz is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Plot, The Latecomer, You Should Have Known (which aired on HBO as The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, and Donald Sutherland), Admission (adapted as a film starring Tina Fey), The Devil and Webster, The White Rose, The Sabbathday River and A Jury of Her Peers, as well as Interference Powder, a novel for children. Her company BOOKTHEWRITER hosts Pop-Up Book Groups in which small groups of readers discuss new books with their authors. She lives in New York City with her husband, Irish poet Paul Muldoon.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Always on July 23, 2017

I had no clue what this book was about and so I just picked it up because who knows and it ended up being about Webster College. We follow along as the first female president ends up entangled with a student protester who takes things too far. I would just like to say that college history and the po......more

Goodreads review by Amy on December 19, 2017

The Devil and Webster – 4 stars I have been saying that it requires some bravery to write this review. The central issue is far more complicated than it initially appears. At first, I found the book slow. It took me awhile to get into it. But I now see the construction of the book was the lens of exp......more

Goodreads review by Kate on May 29, 2017

I have been lucky enough to meet Jean Hanff Korelitz and attend her wonderful pop up book groups for other authors. Tomorrow, I will get to sit with her to discuss her newest novel which was thoroughly engrossing and very thought provoking. This novel about a campus under siege from student activist......more

Goodreads review by Liz on April 26, 2017

Hmm. Still in consideration on this one. It was beautifully written but not sure it engaged me utterly. I kind of meandered along to the end of it with no real gut instinct. Fuller review to follow later.......more

Goodreads review by Steve on July 29, 2021

Only picked this up after my spouse and one of her colleagues read and enjoyed it ... and, well, I understand why they recommended it, and it struck close to home (on oh so many issues), but I can't say that I loved it ... but I did enjoy it ... even if it took me a while to buy in. Once I did buy i......more


Quotes

"Korelitz's new novel is a smart, semi-satire about the reign of identity politics on college campuses today... The Devil and Webster is wittily on target about, among other things, social class and privilege, silencing and old-school feminist ambivalence about power."—NPR's Fresh Air

"Satisfying...A sharp and insightful novel....with a clever plot twist...This ought to be the start of a golden age for the campus novel."
The Wall Street Journal

"Korelitz taps into the current unsettled campus and cultural zeitgeist with eerie precision."—Booklist

"The Devil and Webster can be read as a suspense novel seasoned with social commentary or as a plot-driven academic satire. Korelitz excels in both directions."—Shelf Awareness

"A hilarious send-up of the current college climate."—The New York Post,

"Compulsively readable, uncanny, and irreverent...Korelitz - author of Admission, a college-admissions novel that was made into the 2013 film starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, and You Should Have Known, about a New York shrink who learns her husband of two decades is a sociopath - is an expert on the art of deception, a talent she puts to excellent use in her latest book.—TheNationalBookReview.com

"There is so much in this novel, a thoughtful and beautiful work.... This is highly recommended reading, but don't forget to put on your thinking cap. You'll need it."—BookReporter

"Ms. Korelitz's book is smart and devious--enough so to bring to mind another work of trickery, one that has "Gone" in its title and does not feature Scarlett O'Hara."—The New York Times (Praise for You Should Have Known)

"Tempt the gods with smug self-righteousness and they will deliver a windfall of tragedy, as witness in Jean Hanff Korelitz's rollickingly good literary thriller...Korelitz writes intimately and engagingly about a social strata few are privy to, but the ugliness is very familiar."—Vanity Fair (Praise for You Should Have Known)

"This consuming, expertly plotted thriller moves along at a slow burn, building up to shocking revelations about Grace's past and ending with a satisfying twist on her former relationship mantra; 'doubt can be a gift.'"—People (Praise for You Should Have Known)


Awards

  • Aspen Words