Reviews

"The marvelous debut is worthy of a place on the same bookshelf as Lucky Jim and A Confederacy of Dunces. The depiction of academic life had me both laughing and cringing at its accuracy... Kudera is the real deal." -Ron Rash, author, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, The World Made Straight and Serena, John Parris Chair in Appalachian Studies, Western Carolina University. "[A] most impressive first novel with an unforgettable protagonist...I would not be surprised if Fight for Your Long Day becomes a classic of early 21st century American literature." -Peter D.G. Brown, Distinguished Service Professor, SUNY New Paltz, Co-Founder, New Faculty Majority ''[A]n expos� of academia and the labor that sustains it...the kind of novel one learns from and rallies behind. Eyebrow-raising and wry, Kudera's take on the ivory tower certainly makes it look less pearly white.'' -ForeWord Reviews ''Cyrus Duffleman and Fight for Your Long Day cast light on [the] situation in which many contingent faculty members find themselves... I hope the novel is popular enough to make a big change; it has already changed me.'' -Isaac Sweeney, Academe ''Kudera is an extremely talented and driven novelist. The authenticity of the experience he writes about burns through on each page." -The Southeast Review "... an original, witty, uncompromising expose of how we live now: ... the less than genteel poverty of adjunct English instructors, the 'war on terror' invading our consciousness, and all around hopelessness for too many... a brilliant first novel." -Joan Mellen, author, A Farewell to Justice, Professor, Graduate Program, Creative Writing, Temple University "Duffleman is the overeducated Everyman for the age: his acute eye for detail and his ironic twist on reality take the reader on this 'A Day in the Life' journey through contemporary America and its moral ambiguities, anxieties, and occasional delights." -Don Riggs, Associate Professor, English & philosophy, Drexel University "Cyrus Duffleman, dedicated foot soldier of the faculty, aims high but faces frustrations and dangers every teaching day. With humor and real understanding, Kudera's novel unflinchingly exposes key paradoxes that lie disturbingly at the core of American academia today." -Anthony Zielonka, French & Comparative Literature, Assumption College "Wow... Talk about bursting the myth of teaching as a noble profession. Mind-numbing bureaucracy, stifling political correctness, and subsistence-wage pay . . . this should be required reading for anyone considering a career in academia." -Iain Levison, author, A Working Stiff's Manifesto, How to Rob an Armored Car, and Dog Eats Dog "Like a subway-scholar Ignatius J. Reilly (A Confederacy of Dunces), adjunct instructor Cyrus Duffleman channels the rage of the academic underclass... Alex Kudera's novel makes lemonade out of the knowledge economy's stingy share of lemons, eking every ounce of catharsis owed to veterans of the core curriculum's front lines." -Justin Bauer, Philadelphia City Paper "Fight For Your Long Day is an adjunct college teacher's version of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Read it in your book club, give it to your pals, assign it to your gulag work crew, uh, I mean 'your class' . . ." Eric Thurschwell, Adjunct Instructor and author. "Duffleman's misadventures will make you laugh out loud, shake your head in dismay, and nod in recognition on every page. I just might have to steal something from this book." -Aharon Levy, Fiction Writer, The Sun and Ecotone "... presents simmering discord and strife through the eyes of Philadelphia denizen Cyrus Duffleman, a college professor who endures the bureaucracy of academia, and the irony of pervasive ignorance throughout higher 'education" -Andrew Breslin, author, Mother's Milk