Preview of MOO Summary:

MOO examines several themes. The most obvious concerns sexual maturation. Among students, faculty, staff, and administrators there is widespread sexual activity that often reveals a loneliness in the characters. For the students, sex is often a frustrating but frantic round of copulation and shortlived infatuation. Once the initial thrill of experimentation ends, however, the students begin to realize that fornication itself has few long-term satisfactions. Older faculty, administrators, and staff have more complex reactions to their sexual longings. Many have already experienced promiscuity, divorce, widowhood, or adultery and are seeking committed relationships based on concern, forgiveness, and sharing. It is no accident that Smiley ends the novel with a wedding in which an adulterous couple, 1960s radicals with four children, finally legalize their relationship. Several other couples also try to form more mature ties.

Less sensational but of equal importance is the theme of money and its role...