I just finished reading this book which was published forty years ago. I love the book because it is a preternaturally accurate and insightful portrayal of Amherst College as it existed in the mid-1950s. I know because I was a student at Amherst in the class of '57. There are many characters who are instantly identifiable as real people at Amherst, such as James Merrill and the renowned (or infamous) professor Theodore Baird ["Oswald McBane"]. I don't know how enjoyable the book will be for readers without an Amherst connection. But for me, it's wonderful, because I disliked Amherst College as much as many of the novel's major characters do, and as Alison Lurie herself obviously did when she was there, married to an English instructor. I'm happy because, when my classmates and I are gone, posterity will remember Amherst as I knew it and as Ms. Lurie has depicted it. Ah, redemption!