Godawful Dreams

Professor Emeritus of English Tom McBride, long known for his distinctive teaching style and co-authorship of the annual Mindset List, enters the world of satirical fiction with Godawful Dreams, two short novels that focus on two different colleges weathering their own scandals. At Illyria College in Vermont in 1960, a series of backroom deals and personal mishaps threaten the financial foundations of the once powerful school. Meanwhile, in 1926, students, staff, and faculty at Belton College in Wisconsin (based heavily on Beloit) are all drawn into the mysterious life—and death—of Classics Professor Theodore Elves. In these two occasionally overlapping narratives that span nine decades and feature countless memorable characters, McBride wryly skewers the academic environment that he knows so well.