Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
As the name suggests this story is set in the world of higher education and universities. Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher had both embarked on careers in the field of literature. They had gone on to higher degrees and eventually taken temporary teaching jobs at universities in this field. Both had come from different backgrounds and had been shaped by their early family experiences. Yet both were determined to make a mark in their own right, so this meant they were often competing against each other. In group work and later when team teaching, they were well renowned for taking opposing points of view in their arguments, making their lectures well sought after.
Fifteen years after first meeting, they were living in the same share house, and both had applied for a position at a Tasmanian University. This type of job, which would give some security of tenure, was hard to come by. There was no love lost between the two who referred to the other only by their surname. So why would they both eventually agree to put in place a plan which would benefit them both, especially knowing how other family members felt about their opponent?
This story reveals how difficult it can be to find meaningful employment within university boundaries. It also highlights the workload expected and the jealousies and one-up-man-ship employed. Not to mention ‘the brotherhood’ and misogyny. The life of an academic is at the centre, their studies, struggles to support themselves, and the stress of finding some security in a world of so much competition.
Yet this is a love story at heart. It is funny, sad and shows how even the most educated can be prone to overthinking and analysing all situations, usually coming up with negative results.
Jodi McAlister has written this book with footnotes on most pages. The story is told alternately, by chapter, and from the point of view of the two protagonists. And both often refer to literature they have studied to emphasise a point or to give an explanation. At times they address the reader sharing words of wisdom or explanations. The reader learns that the basic governing principle of narration is causation; that there are three types of exhaustion and the difference between ‘clock time’ and ‘human time’. All of these are linked to the lives of the protagonists.
A word that is repeated throughout this story is ‘eucatastrophe’, that joy cannot be truly felt in a world where the grief isn’t possible (297). Several situations are described where this feeling applies to the main characters, and family relationships play a prominent role.
This is not a dry academic piece of work. It is an easy to read, long-incubating romance with some interesting descriptions or sayings. The characters, though highly educated lack self-esteem and sometimes seem blind to the obvious.
Dr Jodi McAlister work is predominantly in the fields of popular romance studies and genre studies, working across the disciplines of literary studies, cultural studies, publishing studies and creative writing. She has written romance novels for both adults and young adults, including Marry Me, the Juliet trilogy and the Valentine trilogy. As a scholar, she’s written several academic books about romance and is the Vice President of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance.
With this background, as both author and a scholar of romance fiction, she understands her characters and this setting well.
I quite enjoyed watching these two finally work out why their lives had been entwined for so long and why their other romances had been short lived.
An Academic Affair
(2025)
by Jodi McAlister
Simon & Schuster
ISBN:978 176110 937 9
$24.99;368pp