Around Harvard Square

This coming-of-age novel, set in the ’90s, follows Jamaican-American Tosh Livingston and his group of friends—Lao, Meera, and Zippy—on their quest to land coveted spots on the staff of the Harvard Harpoon, Harvard’s humor magazine. Being selected is a monumental task, but a pot-smoking professor helps them make the cut and also encourages deeper thinking. Unfortunately, revelations cause the students to question their goals and the institution they fought to join. While the characters’ clever dialogue challenges privileged and stereotypical thinking, the characters themselves are underdeveloped, and the story’s slow pacing and a kitchen-sink plot result in a sluggish novel with clunky tone shifts. What’s billed as a humorous read often ventures into bizarre and improbable shifts in circumstance and dark territory, including a tragic ending that is only partially resolved. Despite the promising premise, strong voices, and urgent questions about race and privilege, Farley (Game World) serves up an uneven work. Ages 14–up. [em]Agent: Claudia Cross, Folio Literary Management. (Apr.) [/em]