Book Title: Nevergreen
Author: Andrew Pessin
Publisher: Open Books
Andrew Pessin is an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at Connecticut College, and is thus clearly someone intimately acquainted with campus culture. He is also intimately acquainted with the very-much-related cancel culture, given he was himself once criticized and attacked by students for a pro-Israel Facebook post. It is this background that puts him in prime position to hit the mark with his latest fiction book, the academic satire Nevergreen.
Nevergreen is the name of the secluded island campus college (and former insane asylum) which sets the stage for all sorts of woke hilarity and hijinks described in the book. I suspected it might also be a stab at the culture of the “Green party” pretty much everywhere in the world – and perhaps it is – until I read about Bret Weinstein, a professor at Washington’s Evergreen State College, whose life was turned upside down when he opposed a day free of white people on campus.
In Nevergreen, though, it is “J” who is the protagonist (I suspect Pessin chose this name, because it could also symbolize the Jew on US campuses these days). A physician, J is convinced to give a guest lecture at Nevergreen, which he does – to no audience. Yet this does not stop the editor of the school newspaper from starting a rumor about an offensive statement J supposedly made.
J spends almost the entirety of the rest of the book running from all kinds of virtue signaling ‘woke’ students who claim to “hate hate” in their effort to cancel him (and perhaps even to the point of canceling his life!), not to mention faculty members in cahoots with them. While J does not know exactly what he is supposed to have done, he does feel that his life is in danger because of the alleged offense, and the book portrays the antagonists as out for J’s blood, providing tension in addition to the comedic and farcical elements.
While the book has some hilarious parts, there is a prevailing sinister tone. And I could not help but notice that the campus contains a club for almost everybody – even Neo Nazis – but there seems to be a discernible absence of Jews.
Nevergreen seems to borrow from many other genres and books, including Lord of the Flies and horror films, but it seems that Pessin is ultimately drawing from his own experience to shine a light on campus cancel culture gone wild. And he does so effectively.
My only (small) criticism is I feel the story could have been even more effective at half the length. I personally think an anthology of ‘wokey’ horror stories would have worked better, but perhaps that is a book that Andrew Pessin can write for another day.
You can purchase Nevergreen here.
