Whole Lot of Hullabaloo is a short trip back in time to 2011 at good old Central Ohio University. The book is a satiric snapshot of the social and political issues found across the United States. Ian Mueller is enjoying his college days on a generous lacrosse scholarship. His buddy Troy keeps encouraging a more fastidious approach, but Ian can’t seem to wrangle his own blithe attitude. A lapse in judgement leads to a series of unfortunate events that take the two young men down diverging paths to maturity and self-affirmation. A few hot chicks, professors with questionable motives, and some overbearing board members fill in the cast of this fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants school year in the Midwest.
Christopher Fried almost toes the line in this irreverent look at how issues can quickly escalate. Everything from campus perverts, marriage infidelity, racial slurs, and exaggerated stereotypes are exploited in this facetious story. Absurd moments abound, although there plenty of bits of wisdom and sanity peppered throughout to keep the book from coming across as silly. The dialogue, however, feels unnatural for college aged kids, despite the serious situations in which they find themselves. But in a way, this adds to the peculiar charm of the book. For a look at current events through the lens of a college campus, Whole Lot of Hullabaloo: A Twenty-First Century Campus Phantasmagoria is an entertaining read that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
