“Some people majored in English to prepare for law school. Others became journalists. The smartest guy in the honors program, Adam Vogel, a child of academics, was planning on getting a Ph.D. and becoming an academic himself. That left a large contingent of people majoring in English by default. Because they weren’t left-brained enough for science, because history was too try, philosophy too difficult, geology too petroleum-oriented, and math too mathematical – because they weren’t musical, artistic, financially motivated, or really all that smart, these people were pursuing university degrees doing something no different from what they’d done in first grade: reading stories. English was what people who didn’t know what to major in majored in.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
Reviews, Interviews etc.:
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/interview-jeffrey-eugenides-20111006-1la5v.html
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/nihilism-meets-jane-austen/story-e6frg8nf-1226163154352
http://www.themillions.com/2011/10/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-write-the-marriage-plot.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-kessel/the-marriage-plot-an-ordi_b_1197540.html