Retaking College Hill

I’ve been thinking over Walter Donway’s new novel, Retaking College Hill. I enjoyed it, was moved by it, was moved to thought by it. Gave it a full set of stars. 

I’ve heard some people don’t like the sexual relationships in the book. I thought they were a bit quirky at times, but I thought they were well written and reflective of the author’s personal sexuality in some way. I’ve read a bunch of his fiction and poetry. At times he definitely leans into the erotic, with what you might call a traditional “me-Tarzan, you Jane” attitude. A retro attitude. I think he’s actually strong in such scenes, they come across quite vividly. But someone else’s vivid fantasy can be disturbing at times, and I imagine that’s what’s going on here. I found them a little jarring at times, not in a bad way. I think they are meant to be a bit startling. This book is full of unconventional characters doing bold things. 

The setting is an Ivy League school. Basically, it’s Brown, which the author attended long ago. And the college is beset with activist protesters and political correctness - and violence and intrigue. It’s the violence and intrigue that lead to this book being a thriller, a tale involving multiple murder attempts. Did I warn you there would be spoilers? Well, I will try to keep them to a minimum. 

This is not a book which looks at its villains from the inside. The tactics of the Left are sketched in detail, but we don’t get invited into the heads of the Left. This is not a Dostoevskian approach. Nor do we have a major waffling character, you know, a person we follow along with while they must choose between the two sides. I would say the book is written for people who already have their minds made up about campus intimidation tactics as practiced on the Left. 

What the book means to explore is the best way to respond to such intimidation. This is what the lead characters have trouble coming to a consensus about. Without giving too much away, I think the author believes that, when necessary, force should be met with force, but that the real battle is one of ideas, and that alumni and donors should stop funding postmodern causes, and start funding rational philosophy.  Ayn Rand is repeatedly singled out as an ideal basis for an antidote to postmodernism. 

The storyline agitated me. I kept thinking that characters I cared about were in more trouble than they knew. I felt tragedy looming on the horizon. I was not totally wrong about that, but there was triumph on the horizon as well. I came away, after all that, with my heart lifted, surprised by a book that had worked its share of visionary power, by making me live through an intense adventure.

Obligatory rhyme:

Consider giving this book
A look.