This was an interesting reading experience. For the first half or so I really just couldn’t understand why this was praised so much. A farmer goes to college and becomes a teacher - so what? But as I kept reading I became enthralled with how simple the story is, but how moving the story could still be. It’s really just giving you a window into a character’s life. Nothing really gets exciting and nothing stupendous happens, but I really started to care about this guy's life.
The book is a bit sad - it tells you upfront that he's basically forgotten after he dies - but it’s also comforting somehow. Even if you don’t do anything amazing in life, your life still means something. It's enough to just to be there trying your best with what you know.
I'm not in academia, but the academic fights and politics feel familiar to me, and I was more invested than I thought I would be. This book also made me so glad I wasn’t a woman during the early 1900s - I both felt for Edith - especially with the consent issues in the book - but also she infuriated me. It’s not really her fault that she feels trapped, but still she was unnecessarily cruel at times.