MOO is a highly plotted novel of short chapters in which Smiley keeps bringing up to date the complicated lives of her many characters. Chronologically organized around the fall to spring academic year, the narrative moves at a breathless pace with complication after complication in each character's life, all leading to a neat set of resolutions.

The constant shifting among the large cast of disparate characters requires constant shifts in language so that the thoughts and dialogue are appropriate for persons as limited as Earl Butz, as paranoid as Loren Stroop, and as pompous as Lionel Gift. One device Smiley uses repeatedly is university writing. Gary Olson's stories based on his eavesdropping are hilarious parodies of creative writing assignments. Memoranda from various officials mimic the bureaucratic doublespeak common in such texts. Quotations from university catalogs mirror the bland best-of-all-possible-worlds of such documents.

Smiley also inserts print and television...