Mr. Robinson brings out a book that I believe was much needed. Not so much for its content but for its spirit. I think it makes sense and is fairly clear about it audience: the average book reader who would read the review in Wall Street Journal or the New York Times and purchase the book almost as a means to justify not going to b-school, as big bad business schools are called these days. It is a book that describes the life of a ‘poet’ (student from a non-math background) in the first year of an MBA degree at Stanford Business School, one of America’s most reputed colleges. Peter Robinson was a presidential speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and he left that job to pursue the degree which might explain some of the hostility (or the surprising business acumen in his writing of the book).

It is generally a reconfirming book and works well to pour oil on some of your first fears: is it going to be tough? How will I fair? How green will my valley really be after the ordeal? There are pretty clear perspectives for all these big questions and Mr. Robinson [doesn’t that sound funny? Anything but Mrs. Robinson would sound funny in the post-‘Graduate’ world] has done a good job in stylizing his characters and the storyline in general. What he seems to lack in plot he makes up for it in humor and general interest. It is also clearly exaggerated and often goes to lengths to justify its claims of how hard life at Stanford really is – not only academically, which it of course highlights, but also socially.

Certainly worth reading for all you wannabes.