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The Laughter

Jha, Sonora. Book - 2023 Fiction / Jha, Sonora, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Jha, Sonora 1 On Shelf No requests on this item Community Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Call Number: Fiction / Jha, Sonora, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Jha, Sonora
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length Call Number Checkout Length Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor
4-week checkout
Fiction / Jha, Sonora 4-week checkout On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books
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Adult Book / Fiction / General / Jha, Sonora 4-week checkout Due 11-30-2024
Westgate Adult Books
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Adult Book / Fiction / General / Jha, Sonora 4-week checkout Due 12-04-2024

"Dr. Oliver Harding, a tenured professor of English, is long settled into the routines of a divorced, aging academic. But his quiet, staid life is upended by his new colleague, Ruhaba Khan, a dynamic Pakistani Muslim law professor. Ruhaba unexpectedly ignites Oliver's long-dormant passions, a secret desire that quickly tips towards obsession after her teenaged nephew, Adil Alam, arrives from France to stay with her. Getting to know them, Oliver tries to reconcile his discomfort with the worlds from which they come, and to quiet his sense of dismay at the encroaching change they represent--both in background and in Ruhaba's spirited engagement with the student movements on campus. After protests break out on campus demanding diversity across the university, Harding finds himself and his beliefs under fire, even as his past reveals a picture more complicated than it seems. As Ruhaba seems attainable yet not, and as the women of his past taunt his memory, Harding reacts in ways shocking and devastating. An explosive, tense, and illuminating work of fiction, The Laughter is a fascinating portrait of privilege, radicalization, class, and modern academia that forces us to confront the assumptions we make, as both readers and as citizens"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Biting, dark satire submitted by Jean on August 19, 2024, 11:44pm This novel, narrated by an utterly unlikable, self satisfied middle aged white male academic (a la Humbert Humbert), skewers the Orientalist gaze. The novel, while not wholly successful, is a slow burn, getting better as it goes along and ending with a bang. It's an interesting satire because the novelist is able to convey the complexity and humanity of the people whom the professor fetishizes. All in all, a read that is equal parts entertaining and discomfiting.

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PUBLISHED
New York, NY : HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023.
Year Published: 2023
Description: 302 pages ; 24 cm
Language: English
Format: Book

ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9780063240254

SUBJECTS
Social classes -- Fiction.
Race relations -- Fiction.
Misogyny -- Fiction.
Privilege (Social psychology) -- Fiction.
Student movements -- Fiction.
College teachers -- Fiction.
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction.
Campus fiction.
Thrillers (Fiction)