Fight for Your Long Day by Alex Kudera

Abstract

Reviewed by: Fight for Your Long Day by Alex Kudera Peter Faziani (bio) fight for your long day Alex Kudera Atticus Books https://atticusbooks.net/books/2010-releases/fight-for-your-long-day/ 266 pages; Print, $17.95 Alex Kudera's Fight for Your Long Day criticizes an under-discussed issue in the literary conversation surrounding higher education—adjunct labor. The book's main character, Cyrus Duffleman, is a man of few lauded traits; he lacks confidence, is overweight, struggles economically, and is often distracted by the stress and expectations of his overworked life. Although this novel successfully forces the reader to analyze the adjunctification and abuse of faculty across higher education, it does so by what feels like an intentional exaggeration of reality as Duffleman works through his "long day." This intentional over-exaggeration skews the reality of adjunct labor in such a way that the reader questions not only the message but also the plausibility of Duffleman's narrative. Kudera's intimate understanding of the stressors placed on adjunct faculty members on any day, but especially their long day, is powerful. Throughout the development of the novel, Duffleman takes on many different identities as he puts on the hats of different universities, deals with the demands of the students, and faces the unplanned situations that happen on a college campus. That said, Kudera's portrayal over-exaggerates the frequency of such situations as a challenge to daily life. Although the stressed, overworked, and underpaid life of the adjunct faculty is the primary focus of Kudera's novel, Duffleman's increasingly downtrodden experience, his strange and sole focus on the negative or erotic, and the ultimately deceitful nature of his experience forces the reader to push back on the reality of Duffleman's everyday life. Even as caricature, it's overdone. The beginning of the novel grounds Duffleman's rushed and exhausted morning to get to his first class as a routine of his overworked reality. Although he would love the life of a tenured faculty, "Duffy accepts his adjunct status and pay, choosing to ignore the fact that most college instructors earn [End Page 34] less than sanitation engineers and public bus drivers, and significantly less than sales professionals and accountants, never mind the management types in pornography and terrorism." The problem is that Duffleman's reality is anything but real. Although the scope of the novel distinguishes a fundamental flaw in higher education's labor model, Kundera pushes the believability of Duffleman's daily life into unbelievable moments. The daily life and the ritual that any person must endure on a given day often catalogs breaks in reality as unusual, whereas the rest is established as mundane and ordinary. In fact, scholars such as Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, and more recently Ben Highmore have all studied "everyday life" as a means of thinking critically about the experiences that go overlooked. Highmore suggests in Everyday Life and Cultural Theory (2001) that contrary to the argument of Jessica Evans, a scholar studying the Mass-Observation movement in England during the 1930s and 1940s, the observation of the routine and ritual is rooted in documenting and understanding rather than the intent to other them. Highmore ties his understanding of the everyday to the way an observer is documenting without influence, much like the way a reader reads without sway over the text. Kudera, like Evans, seems to view his subject through a lens of oversimplified and exaggerated terms. Ultimately, these terms push the reader into questioning the plausibility of the long day's relentless and unmitigated negative events that tear through multiple campuses across Philadelphia. Kudera's push into exaggerated reality is not instantaneous. It happens throughout the day as Duffleman's energy level drops and his ability to continue wanes without a cup of coffee or a chance to close his eyes on the train. However, it is worth noting that even though the novel was published in 2010 and reflects America's palpable and present fear of terrorism in almost every facet of life, a racist outburst turned fistfight to the assassination of a federal official with a bow and arrow is a giant leap. Although the...