At the end of Charles Webb’s first novel, The Graduate, Benjamin Braddock rescues his beloved Elaine from a marriage made not in heaven but in California.

It is now eleven years and 3,000 miles later, and the couple live in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City, with their two young sons whom they are educating at home. Through no accident, a continent now stands between them and the boys’ surviving grandparent, now known as Nan, but who in former days answered to Mrs. Robinson.

As the story opens, the Braddock household is in turmoil as the Westchester School Board attempts to quash the unconventional educational methods the family is practicing.

Desperate situations call for desperate remedies — even a cry for help to the mother-in-law from hell, who is only too happy to provide her loving services — but at a price far higher than could be expected.

Charles Webb has a knack for pinpointing the horrors and absurdities of domestic life, and Home School displays all the precision and wit that made The Graduate such a long-lasting success.


From the Hardcover edition.