Academy Gothic

by James Tate Hill

Hardboiled noir meets academic satire in Academy Gothic. Tate Cowlishaw is late for another faculty meeting when he discovers the body of Scoot Simkins, dean of Parshall College. Cowlishaw might be legally blind but sees that a man with three bullets in his head didn't put them there himself. The police disagree. When Cowlishaw investigates, he is told his teaching contract won't be renewed. Suspects aren't hard to come by at the college annually ranked Worst Value by U.S. News & World Report. While the faculty brace for a visit from the accreditation board, Cowlishaw's investigation leads him to another colleague on eternal sabbatical. Before long, his efforts to save his job become efforts to stay alive. A farcical tale of incompetence and corruption, Academy Gothic scathingly redefines higher education as it chronicles the last days of a dying college.

Genres: Dark Academia, Mystery

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2015

About the author

James Tate Hill is the author of a memoir, Blind Man's Bluff, coming in 2021 from W. W. Norton. His fiction debut, Academy Gothic, won the Nilsen Literary Prize for a First Novel. His essays have been listed as notable in the 2019 and 2020 editions of Best American Essays, and his writing has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Writer's Digest, Story Quarterly, and Hobart, among others. He serves as fiction editor for the literary journal Monkeybicycle and contributing editor for Literary Hub, where he writes a monthly audiobooks column.

Reviews

[Travis Mulhauser]

I loved this book for both its deadpan humor and scathing satire of academia. One reviewer described Academy Gothic as "uproarious" and part of that appeal is in the inventive hilarity of its premise and the truly bizarre, hysterics that spin off it...but it's also in the sentences themselves. Hill moves from moment to moment with these great, little gut punch lines--narrator Tate Cowlishaw's observations are keen, funny, and biting--and make the necessary logistics of the story's progression part of the, for lack of a better word, fun.

I taught at the community college and university level for twelve years in the state of North Carolina, so I'm a pretty friendly room for Academy Gothic's takedown of higher ed. This book really captures the insular, self-obsessed, and too often ineffectual nature of our academies--which, in my opinion, spend much of their time and energy (deliberately or through sheer incompetence) working in direct opposition to their own stated purposes. This is obviously a broad characterization, and while compelling research, anecdotes, and personal experience may be helpful to support my claim--you'll probably have more fun just reading this book.

[James Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not only one of the best books I have ever read, but it is also one of the best books I have ever written. This latter must be true because, to date, it is the only book I have written that has been published. If it is not obvious from my name and the content of those first two sentences, I should make clear that I am the author and this review is intended solely for your amusement.

[Jeanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many jokes or wordplay sarcasm per paragraph. Sometimes there are two a sentence. It ends up, for me, just being a sit com. laugh track type of dialogue. I did appreciate the observations on Academia and black humor on his own blindness. But because those aspects were so constantly overwhelming the print copy, it was rather hard to connote the plot or who or what of the current conversations.

I've read his memoir, and I liked that much better. This is satire without holding much depth at all. And it gets old real quick in the reading. I do wish him luck in trying something more easily understandable with having a better ploy or plot to the play.

[Erica Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

The eccentric cast of characters reminded me of a Robert Altman film. Amateur sleuth Tate Cowlishaw leads the band of weirdos with Sahara-dry wit. This is an entertaining, thoughtful mystery. I love it when small presses/small press authors absolutely nail it.

[Alex Kudera · Rating 4 out of 5]

The protagonist gets floored, tripped, and slammed in the kisser by multiple men even as various women rush to embrace him. It's all in a comical fashion revealing the author's dry wit. The book is also useful for learning how people with extremely limited eyesight "see."

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a reader who hasn't picked up a mystery since a long-running childhood Nancy Drew addiction, I wasn't sure what to expect from ACADEMY GOTHIC. I was delighted to find a brisk, funny novel that brutally satirizes small-town academia as a band of misfit faculty haphazardly puzzle out who murdered their college's dean.

Hill's world is revealed through the eyes (sort of) of smart-tongued, nearly blind protagonist Tate Cowlishaw, a professor who's more likely to cancel class than teach it, and whose job security hinges on his pretended ability to sense paranormal activity. Cowlishaw's disability makes him, at times, a challenging protagonist to follow (he lacks all but peripheral vision, and many of the novel's physical altercations are consequently disembodied--"A hit landed in my gut. A second one, not so quick, missed"), but his wry wit and sarcasm make him a pleasure to stumble through the darkness with.

All in all, a fantastic debut novel from a promising writer! Recommended for lovers of mysteries and academics everywhere.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect with this book but ended up loving the extremely flawed main character and the setting of a small, failing, liberal arts school in NC was captivating. Loved it, will recommend it to friends.

[Ann Gelder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comic/noir thriller with a lot to say about the state of the contemporary academy. It's a biting yet oddly hopeful satire, and a mystery that keeps you wondering right up to the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Aaron P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in one sitting. Fast paced with a good sense of humor.

[Julia Lasalle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The gun sounded a lot like a gun going off."

Really funny. The kind of funny that forces you go back a sentence or two to re-read, because you're not quite sure if you may have missed the joke, it was delivered so straight-faced. In other words: My kind of funny.

These sort of dark one-liners are a big part of what keeps the pages turning in Academy Gothic. Sure, there's mystery, and surprise-filled haunted houses, and dramatic love affairs, and murder, and plot twists and whores - like a grown-up Scooby Doo - and all that is swell.

But, it's the fresh milieu of a decaying, bankrupt college, that really locks your attention. Here academics vie for tenure within an indoor swimming pool, re-purposed and cubicled. It's hilarious and unheard of, and also just the tiniest little bit- just the right delicious amount - this side of possible to be compelling. Zoinks!

There's one more thing about Academy Gothic, that bears mentioning. It's the kind of thing I'd discuss with my girlfriends in a book club, if I were the type of girl that had girlfriends and a book club (see how that JTH humor has rubbed off on me!). Each of the characters has an obvious physical characteristic, that they refuse to be defined by.... probably to their own detriment. A wheel-chair bound interim dean that refuses to take a ground level office.
A legally blind protagonist, who spends so much effort pretending to make eye contact, that he fails to see a person's true nature. It's the kind of thing that makes you think about human nature, and your own nature. To question, what your deliberately denying and at what cost. It's the kind of thing that elevates a funny, murder mystery into something that's still funny, but also metaphorical and literary and unforgettable.

[Christie Bane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is nothing like anything I usually read. I read it because I’m about to take an 8-week writing class from the author, so I thought it would be prudent to find out something about my soon-to-be instructor. And what better way to do that than by reading his book?

Big relief — I like his writing. A lot. The story, though, was a “whodunnit” — definitely not my style. I am glad to say that the writing was good enough that I stayed engrossed the whole time, even though I did not particularly care who did it. The author (like me) is good at creating characters who are mostly unlikable, but no less interesting for being unlikable. In fact, that quality made them more interesting. He also imagined into being the absolute worst college I have ever heard of — Parshall, a bottom of the barrel institution of higher learning that sucks in literally every single way possible. You want to keep reading just to find which horrible thing at this horrible school will happen next.

One other thing that I found fascinating was that the narrator of this story is visually impaired. His visual impairment does factor into his story, but in a way that any other individual character trait would, not in a “this is the blind guy” way. (No guide dog, though.)

Overall it was a 3.5 star reading experience for me, but I’ll go ahead and bump it up to 4 just because 1) the writing is really good, even though the story is not really up my alley, and 2) I’m taking a class from this guy in a week, so a 3-star review would be a crappy thing for me to do!

[Cheri Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There can't be a better way to write an academic satire than by setting a murder mystery at an imaginary college annually ranked "worst value" by U.S. News & World Report, where, after the collapse of one of the campus buildings, the lecturers and adjuncts are "relocated to cubicles in the campus's retired swimming pool," even though "Blue and white tiles remained on the walls" and "The heating system ran like a freight train in the ceiling." This book was so freaking funny and smart, I found myself wanting something exactly like it when it was over. Especially recommended for fans of Julie Schumacher's Dear Committee Members, The Shakespeare Requirement, and The English Experience.

[curleduptoes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could not finish this book because it was beating around the bush a lot. I understand that murder mysteries can be complex, but as a reader, and unlike an Inspector/Detective, I am not obliged to find the murderer, and keep working on a case more than its necessary. This could be a better mystery and I am sure readers must have enjoyed it but I am short of patience and cannot keep trying to like a book that is mostly irrelevant dialogues between people who are not even deserving to be a suspect.

I tried to like this book, I even liked Tate initially but he was too involved in others and in his own mind so I decided to let go of this one.

[Judith Praag · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many chuckles and some out loud laughter too. Apart from the slow uncovering of the intrigue, this murder mystery sheds light on what it's like to live with Macular Degeneration. Many of the puns are directly connected to the lead character's limited vision. That's not a put-down, on the contrary, to experience as a reader the extra sensitivities and sensibilities, or even abilities of a visually impaired, happenstance detective is enlightening. GoodReads for sure.

[Grace Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be entirely honest I had a lot of trouble following the plot and keeping track of who was who, and I’m not sure how much of that was the book and how much was me just not having the brainspace for it all. That said, the first person narration was really good, very witty with lots of dark, dry humor. I would read a whole series about Tate Cowlishaw sticking his nose in other people’s business and getting in way over his head.

[David Fromm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Academy Gothic reads like a book that was fun to write -- an intricate plot that weaves back and forth, characters you can feel, great noir dialogue that stays on the right side of camp. Hill builds a fun world full of dreamers, connivers and jaded goofballs and sets them loose. Highly recommended.

[Olivia Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

I love mysteries and I love humor. This book has both. The author teases the reader with possible answers to “who done it,” but manages to keep some secrets hidden until after the reader has (incorrectly) solved the puzzle. I’m looking forward to the author’s next book.

[Emily Stearns · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Cowlishaw might be legally blind but sees that a man with three bullets in his head didn’t put them there himself. The police disagree.” This book seemed intriguing but after a month of trying to read it I had to call it quits a little less than halfway through. What I did read was disjointed-continually jumping from thought to unconnected thought in a span of a few paragraphs.

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of funny comments narrated in here. The blind protagonist in Academy Gothic perceives the world in a distinctive way that will be memorable for readers.

[JPM · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author has a great sense of humor and I enjoyed the setting of a third rate college in financial ruin. The mystery was good, too. Different and refreshing.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

[4.0] A Scooby-Doo mystery meets a college satire
Instead of skewering professors, it takes aim at the entire system. (And as exaggerated as some of it seems, the wildest parts are apparently based on true events!)

Things I liked: heavy plotting - truly wasn’t sure where things would go, small press pub, some witty zingers.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was definitely "different" and had some deadpan humor. I found it kind of tedious in places and sometimes hard to figure out what was going on. The characters were hard to follow as was the story thread. Perhaps my mind wandered too much while I was reading. Thus just two stars!

[Lavinia Ludlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review here:

http://entropymag.org/academy-gothic-...

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Unlikable characters, forgettable mystery. The most interesting part was the first person account from the protagonist of being legally blind. At least it was a fast read.