Book Log 2023 #14: The Big U by Neal Stephenson

This is Stephenson's first novel, which for a long time was almost impossible to find. He let it go out of print, and was happy to leave it out of print until (according to Wikipedia) he saw how much used copies were going for on eBay, and decided that the only thing worse than people reading this book was how much people were paying to read this book.

And while it doesn't measure up to later works, it's not bad. It's not always good, mind you, but there are hallmarks of later books to be found here. It also helps if you can suspend disbelief enough in the ways the book's satire of college life go off the rails into farce.

The book has a special place in my heart as it was inspired by Stephenson's time at Boston University, which I started at not long after he left.  I don't know that you needed to go to BU in the 1980s to really enjoy this book, but it doesn't hurt. I think it would also help if you were in the sciences, as many of the characters are, and they tend to be drawn the most completely.

Certainly worth a read if you're a fan and haven't yet read it.