University Boulevard: A Novel
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Chipper DeHart and court jester Peachy Waterman, Jr. leave the dry-boned village of El Viento, Oklahoma, to start life anew as college freshmen and fraternity brothers.
It's 1967, and while the world is turning topsy-turvy, the twosome seeks refuge within the walls of Sigma Zeta Chi. But Peachy's bid to pledge doesn't come easy; in fact, he finagles his way into the frat house, along with the first non-white to ever pledge a college fraternity in Oklahoma, a full-blood Kickapoo Indian named Larry Twohatchets. And when the pledge class seems it couldn't take on one more misfit, along comes Smokey Ray Divine, a golfing hippie that lives on the razor's edge. Amy, Audora, and Cassie are the three muskarettes who steer the boys through college life, helping to protect them from the Vietnam tentacles that keep trying to reach through the windows of the fraternity house and pull the members into the jungle. But as the fraternity men cope by building their walls thicker and thicker, they discover that the enemy comes from within. Over the course of their four college years, faith is born through the death of their dreams. The Age of Aquarius meets The Age of Apollo in this flirtation with a mystical college life on University Boulevard.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A bright-eyed, all-American teenager leaves his Oklahoma town in 1967 to start college at the state university in this perky sequel to Flatbellies. Chipper DeHart and best friend, Peachy, pledge the Sig Zeta fraternity, while devoted sweetheart Amy and her roommates pledge the sister sorority. Against the backdrop of political and social upheaval, the story spans the gang's eight semesters, mostly through the lens of Greek life (one wonders if they attend class at all). Colorful frat pranks and roommate drama certainly entertain, though non Greek enthusiasts will have trouble mustering passion for the minutiae of frat life. Attempts to draw parallels between the experience of American troops in Vietnam and the fraternity brotherhood flounder, as do efforts to evoke the counterculture, in the persons of mysterious Smokey Ray and free spirit Audora. Chipper is affected by the changing times, but maintains his staunch conservatism, rejecting drugs and premarital sex and embracing Christianity. The novel culminates in the all-important "Fraternity of the Year" contest, but as activity points rack up and the army draft looms, reader interest wanes. Smooth prose and occasional wit distinguish this otherwise mediocre volume with cartoonish characters and a predictable plot.
