General education is usually approached with a degree of reverence and mostly treated with scholarly sobriety. In Gen Ed, the humorous and sometimes unruly circumstances of putting it into practice are also brought to our attention. Gen Ed is a novel that locates serious discussion of general education in the context of some of the day-to-day realities encountered in putting it into practice and promoting efforts at reform at Metropolitan Atlantic University (aka the Metro). This dual focus is found in the often-pugnacious policy debate among the faculty and a more light-hearted discussion of related questions carried on by Professor Kelly as he models Socratic teaching in his upper-level class for prospective teachers. Reforming general education at the Metro is not free of the vanities and vulgarities of ambitious men and women and self-serving politicians, of course, nor those who poke fun at them. Arnie Smatter, the irrepressible and nosey chat show host of Radio YOY ensures that this does not go unnoticed.

The overall humorous tone of Gen Ed does not detract from Mulcahy’s thoughtful treatment of substantive issues that will be of interest to serious scholars, students, and a general readership. It is the behaviour of those involved, the broader media and political contexts in which events take place, which mainly becomes the object of humorous treatment.