Flesh/a Novel

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

Obsession takes over two lives-one brazenly, the other more sneakily-in this witty black comedy of lust, academia and Southern manners. When bachelor history professor Max Finster arrives in the university community of Oxford, Miss., he moves in next door to Don and Susan Shapiro, and all of their lives are headed for dramatic change. Narrator Don, a professor of English, gradually becomes fascinated by Max, his mysterious past, polymathic mind, chameleon personality and strange sexual agenda. Max gets busy ravishing a series of obese women, each larger than the previous one, as Don theorizes and looks on-sometimes literally, via a peephole he has drilled through the apartment wall. This sordid activity is set against a panorama of outwardly wholesome college life, but Don's insider perspective digs beneath the facades both of professiorial pretense and the institutionalized civility of the South. First-novelist Galef, himself a tenured professor (he also has published short stories and nonfiction articles), writes knowingly of the academic scene, sparing no one, and sheds a whole new light on the subtleties of male bonding. His funny, insightful narrative is peppered with wonderfully erudite diction and literary conceits.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Obsession takes over two lives-one brazenly, the other more sneakily-in this witty black comedy of lust, academia and Southern manners. When bachelor history professor Max Finster arrives in the university community of Oxford, Miss., he moves in next door to Don and Susan Shapiro, and all of their lives are headed for dramatic change. Narrator Don, a professor of English, gradually becomes fascinated by Max, his mysterious past, polymathic mind, chameleon personality and strange sexual agenda. Max gets busy ravishing a series of obese women, each larger than the previous one, as Don theorizes and looks on-sometimes literally, via a peephole he has drilled through the apartment wall. This sordid activity is set against a panorama of outwardly wholesome college life, but Don's insider perspective digs beneath the facades both of professiorial pretense and the institutionalized civility of the South. First-novelist Galef, himself a tenured professor (he also has published short stories and nonfiction articles), writes knowingly of the academic scene, sparing no one, and sheds a whole new light on the subtleties of male bonding. His funny, insightful narrative is peppered with wonderfully erudite diction and literary conceits. (Apr.)

Library Journal

This satirical novel chronicles the "great fleshly quest" of Max, a teacher whose outrageous sexual behavior involves portly women. Max arrives in Mississippi to teach history at Ole Miss and rents an apartment next to the narrator, Don, and his wife. Don, an English professor, becomes entangled with Max's clandestine behavior as he craftily constructs a peephole in Max's bedroom. Max romances women in great numbers until he meets his fantasy, a 400-pound Brunhild named Maxine, who becomes involved in Max's bizarre death. Although the plot stretches into the absurd, Galef's story raises serious questions about our culture's obsession with bodies. Galef's candid reflections on Southern culture, his entertaining lampoon of academic manners, and his supporting characters are as uproarious and engaging as his ribald plot. An accomplished debut worth noting. Recommended for all collections.-David A. Beron, Westbrook Coll. Lib., Portland, Me.

Brian McCombie

Galef's first novel is concerned with obsession and voyeurism. Don Shapiro, a professor at the University of Mississippi, tells the story of Max, a new addition to the school's history department. Max is "cheerfully self-sufficient" (often to the point of rudeness), a womanizer, a "chameleon," and not above lying, which makes Don so very curious that from the first day Max moves in next door, Don begins spying on him. What intrigues Don most is the number of affairs Max has--but only with obese women. Don becomes so inquisitive that he begins to watch Max's sexual encounters via a peephole. At some point, the question becomes who is more obsessed: Max, in search of yet another conquest, or Don, with his none-too-explainable interest in another man's sex life? Along the way, academia is shown as a cluster of complaints, dislikes, and self-loathing.