The Laughter

RAFAEL FRUMKIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"A no-holds-barred comic achievement that lambastes the power structures keeping men like Oliver skulking the halls of academe ... Jha renders Oliver's bumbling narcissism with impressive skill: Clearly writing across experience, she captures the clueless voice of a supremely privileged man to intense comic effect ... Every scene is infused with the anxieties of a democracy on the brink of collapse and an education system facing a crisis of conscience. To say The Laughter is just a campus novel is to vastly undersell it; it's also the story of America's changing cultural landscape and the major political and philosophical shifts needed to uplift and protect the marginalized."