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As She Climbed Across the Table
Jonathan Lethem Book Review

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Plot Summary of As She Climbed Across the Table
"Philip Engstrand is a professor who studies other professors and their disciplines. He realizes he is deeply in love with particle physicist Alice Coombs right about the time she becomes engrossed in a possibly monumental breakthrough: the creation of a singularity -- a black hole -- in the lab. Philip grows frantic as Alice and many others on campus become enthralled by this "Lack": speculating on which objects it will engulf and which it rejects. Other researchers try out their theories on the phenomenon while psychologist Cynthia Jalter flirts heavily with Philip. Lethem lampoons various contemporary academic fads, and there's a marvelous scene at a drunken cocktail party, while Philip tries ever more desperate means to get Alice back and she continues to recede from him."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of As She Climbed Across the Table
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Kind of romance: - love triangle/polygon
Life of a profession: - scientist/scholar
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story Yes
Lover is - totally uninterested

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - teacher
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - natural phenomena
Has magical powers? Yes
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a substantial amount

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 1 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest
Misc setting - scientific labs

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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Jonathan Lethem Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
David Loftus  

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