Deconstruction Acres

This clunky town-gown farce features a narrator named Underdog (inspired by his second-grade Halloween costume), who gets kicked out of Midwestern Jasper College his first week of school and then stays put as a ""townie."" After he finds a job at the college print shop, Underdog falls in love with a painters' model whom he spots on a delivery run. At the same time, he strikes up a casual affair with his landlady's earthy daughter. But he finds his romantic rival for the attentions of both women in Race Fletcher, a new arrival on the faculty whose celebrity derives from his book, a deconstruction of the TV show Green Acres. This rivalry takes a long time to reach its climax and then all too quickly sputters out. While Brown's unlikely hero has a certain sophomoric charm, as campus satire this Underdog don't bite. (Sept.) FYI: Brown is editor and publisher of Tomorrow, an alternative poetry magazine in Chicago.