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'American Desert' Skewers Institutions

Book critic Alan Cheuse reviews American Desert by Southern California writer Percival Everett. It's a satirical look at a number of American institutions, from the church to the university to the military to the press, told through the story of a professor who's not exactly alive.

Copyright 2004 NPR

Alan Cheuse died on July 31, 2015. He had been in a car accident in California earlier in the month. He was 75. Listen to NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamburg's retrospective on his life and career.