Not for me: I was unable to continue reading this book. It was not what I thought it would be. I had assumed it would be a provocative manifesto- something I could get behind. A revolutionary movement that students rallied behind. It wasn’t that.

Naomi Roth is the first female president of Webster College, a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts. Once a conservative missionary school with the mandate of educating Native Americans, Webster is now popular with progressive, politically-active students who want to make a difference in the world. The students often hold protests at The Stump, a meeting place in the middle of campus. However, the current protest is getting out of hand, and Naomi is losing control.

As a former student radical herself, Naomi encourages her daughter Hannah to express her opinions – so she is not surprised when Hannah, who is a student at Webster, joins the protest. She isn’t worried, until she realizes that the students are camped out at The Stump, and gaining members every day. They are ostensibly protesting the denial of tenure for a popular professor, but Naomi thinks that their cause is somewhat silly – compared to her own former radical protests – and will end after a few chilly nights. Instead, the encampment escalates to the point that Naomi’s job is threatened.

The protest grows, eventually leading to acts of vandalism that destabilize the security of the campus. The issue is further complicated when Omar Khayal, a Palestinian student, emerges as the group’s de facto leader – and as secrets are revealed about Omar’s past, Naomi realizes that the campus may be in serious danger. There are other complicated issues of race, such as the fact that the untenured professor is African-American, leading the students to suggest race as a motive for the negative tenure decision. While the students’ dissent is at first encouraged, things soon go too far.

As the crisis escalates and Naomi loses control of the Webster campus, she struggles to protect those around her – especially her daughter. Although we do see other perspectives, Naomi is the main protagonist, and her view is compelling because she finds herself in a difficult position – not only at Webster, but with Hannah as well. From her new position of power, she underestimates both Hannah and the other students, even though Naomi herself is more comfortable in the role of protester. She gradually learns the extent that she is willing to compromise her ethical values.

The novel struggles with problems such as a slow, meandering pace and too much unnecessary description. The first half especially was weighed down with details that added little to the story. However, the plot itself is timely and compelling – but overall it moved too slowly to hold my attention. I did enjoy the various discussions about the political protests, and the emphasis on the importance of appearance vs. reality in current events – especially the idea that we need to be educated about any cause we choose to support, in a world where facts can be so easily manipulated and distorted.

I received this book from Faber & Faber and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this story of a besieged university president being tried by public opinion and unable to defend herself due to privacy laws that protect those unfairly attacking her. It did convey this sense of helplessness and injustice well with a satirical look at higher education and the media but the claustrophobic response this engenders in the reader makes it an uncomfortable read. Unfortunately it failed to live up to my expectations.

A brave, timely campus novel that delves into the controversies around who can speak for whom and the assumptions we make about those with and without power. I didn't get into "The Devil And Webster" straight away--the style is dense and contains a lot of detail--but once I did I was hooked. An exciting novel; I'll be recommending this one fior book groups as I'm certain it will get people talking.

The Devil and Webster is a slow burn campus novel from the perspective of a feminist scholar college president who discovers that ideals and protest are not as clear cut as she once thought. Webster College is an elite liberal arts college in New England and from its less inclusive past has transformed into a centre of free thought, inclusiveness, and protest. Its president Naomi Roth has a protesting past and when another protest sparks up on campus, she sees no reason to discourage it. However, the events that unfold question her beliefs and show that corruption can spring up anywhere and protest can be a grey area.

The novel is full of detail and is quite slow paced, but this culminates in a twist that shows how one situation can very suddenly turn into another one. Naomi’s current life is vividly painted, from her troubled relationship with her daughter Hannah - a student at Webster - to her worries about her closest friend Francine, Webster’s dean of admissions. Combined with this is an image of protest in the modern day, with social media able to spread information and misinformation in the blink of an eye. The conflict in the novel unfolds gradually and though it took a while to be sure that it was going somewhere, the ending and the way in which Naomi is caught in a seemingly futile position despite her best intentions do make it worthwhile.

From reading the acknowledgements at the end, I found out that Naomi Roth had featured in an early novel by Korelitz, but The Devil and Webster worked well as a standalone book and any mystery about Naomi’s past felt like part of the narrative. Though its pace may not appeal to everybody, it is an incisive and sometimes satirical novel about intentions, corruption, and higher education.