Preview of The Education of Robert Nifkin Summary:

The Education of Robert Nifkin is a very funny novel about distinctly unfunny subjects. Nifkin encounters anti-Semitic, communist witch hunts, insane teachers, cruel and duplicitous school administrators, and young people who, like himself, cannot fit into their schools or their neighborhoods, and for whom home is often a wasteland of intellectual sterility. The Education of Robert Nifkin is one of the most serious of Pinkwater's many funny novels because underlying the humor is an account of how a generation of children could be alienated from their parents and the society they are supposedly being groomed to enter. The novel, despite cruel topics and serious social concerns, is ultimately upbeat in temper and tone.

Nifkin is an active agent who does not just allow evil to be done to him. With the help of a community of misfits and some cynical but openhearted adults, he overcomes the social limitations...