“A doctoral dissertation not getting written is never just a doctoral dissertation not getting written. It’s always a stand-in for something more consequential (take it from a former grad student who knows). But when we encounter Cressida (Cress) Hartley, the protagonist of Michelle Huneven’s fourth novel, ‘Off Course,’ she doesn’t realize this yet. In fact, she has just persuaded her parents to allow her to live in their vacation cabin in California’s Sierra Nevada for “three months free and clear,” so that she can ‘bang . . . out’ her dissertation in economics.”
May 23, 2014 – The New York Times
Writer’s Retreat. ‘Off Course,’ by Michelle Huneven
By Naomi Fry
"Schoolsville:" Academic/Campus/College/University Fiction 