Carrying on

"CARRYING ON chronicles the trials and triumphs of Professor Lucas Brodie during a turbulent one-year period in his life. The story begins in November of 2016, shortly after Brodie’s wife, Marie, announces that their marriage is no longer working for her. Living on his own for the first time in more than twenty years, Lucas struggles to reconstruct his personal life against the headwind of his chronically neurotic personality. The professional side of Lucas’s life presents a different set of challenges. Lucas is chosen by his colleagues at Rainier University in Seattle to serve as the next chair of the Sociology Department. He accepts the Dean’s invitation to lead his department, despite his deep misgivings about the emotional toll it will take on him and the professional sacrifices it will require. His difficult decision is motivated by the competing candidacy of his nemesis in the department for the position. Lamenting the situation, and the decision he faces, Lucas tells his closest confidante that he will be “crucified on the cross of departmental desperation.”Professor Jade Singleton is a charismatic and ambitious feminist. Her transparent desire to be department chair rattles and concerns Lucas and many others in the department. Among her detractors, she is viewed as narcissistic, biased, and incompetent. Falling one vote short of achieving her goal, Jade launches an effort to undermine Lucas’s leadership. More favorable developments in Lucas’s personal life help him to weather the difficulties he faces at work. He adopts a dog, Gusto, and hires Anna Able a professional dog trainer. Gusto offers Lucas companionship. Anna proves to be a wise counselor and eventually a romantic partner. This tale about one year in Brodie’s life is sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, and sometimes pathetic, but always irreverent. It is a story of personal triumph over adversity, essentially through a strategy of “carrying on”. Although set in the academy, the story told in Carrying On is not unique to academia"--Amazon.com.