The Mind and Body Shop

The central characters of this frenetically zany satire by a tutor in politics at Oxford (author of Krippendorf's Tribe are philosophy professor Hambro and his fat, unloved wife, Margeryformerly his charlady. Margery studies women's lib with glamorous school psychiatrist Hedda Hagstrom, who jots down personal shopping lists while listening to student woes and then counsels suicide. Hedda advises Margery to have a baby, but Hambro, devoted to his research on George Orwell, spitefully gets a vasectomy. Margery then takes a student lover, the previously suicidal Colin. Margery's ex-con dad, Shanker, becomes a self-made philosopher and designs a popular Jacuzzi seminar on Spinoza. With money as its aim, the university gradually sells out to its wealthiest sponsorIslam. A Khomeini Centre opens, the Koran is law and freedom is eliminated as Hedda and Margery don chadhors. The novel's jaunty cynicism and Monty Pythonesque shenanigans address a serious point. (July 27)