Jerry and Rodrigo Go to War: A Novel
Jerry and Rodrigo Go to War: A Novel
Steven Salaita
Rodrigo Suarez’s Coyote Road is a veritable smash hit. Anyone who’s anyone is reading it, and the accolades and speaking invitations are pouring in. There is just one problem: Rodrigo didn’t write it. Jerry Turley did. And no one believes him.
Thus, Jerry—an unimpressive professor at an Appalachian university—embarks on an obsessive, self-destructive crusade to prove his authorship and expose Rodrigo as a thief and an impostor. It doesn’t take much Googling to discover that “Rodrigo” is not the man he claims to be. Convincing people to care about it proves much harder.
In this uncomfortable campus farce, Steven Salaita holds a mirror to the nagging questions of authenticity and appropriation that occupy college campuses and literary institutions alike, daring to ask us who really stands to benefit from our era of sensitivity and self-regard.
Product Details
ISBN: 9781945335464
Published: March 10, 2026
Format: Paperback
Size: 5.5 x 8.5 in
Page count: 156
Other Formats
ISBN: 9781945335723
Format: EPUB
Rodrigo Suarez’s Coyote Road is a veritable smash hit. Anyone who’s anyone is reading it, and the accolades and speaking invitations are pouring in. There is just one problem: Rodrigo didn’t write it. Jerry Turley did. And no one believes him.
Thus, Jerry—an unimpressive professor at an Appalachian university—embarks on an obsessive, self-destructive crusade to prove his authorship and expose Rodrigo as a thief and an impostor. It doesn’t take much Googling to discover that “Rodrigo” is not the man he claims to be. Convincing people to care about it proves much harder.
In this uncomfortable campus farce, Steven Salaita holds a mirror to the nagging questions of authenticity and appropriation that occupy college campuses and literary institutions alike, daring to ask us who really stands to benefit from our era of sensitivity and self-regard.
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“Salaita's second novel, Jerry and Rodrigo Go to War, has a big voice and a bigger message: the drama unfolding in this clash about identity and authenticity is a poignant but entertaining critique of the hypocrisy and absurdity that exists on college campuses. Witty and engaging—a must-read.” —Susan Muaddi Darraj, author of Behind You Is the Sea
“Of the campus lit I’ve read, Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim and Bernard Malamud’s A New Life are the funniest, John Williams’ Stoner is the most poignant, and Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin is the most playful. Jerry and Rodrigo Go To War brings together the best of each of these.” —Joshua Sperber for CounterPunch
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Steven Salaita is an award-winning scholar, writer, and activist. He is the author of ten books about Arab Americans, Indigenous peoples, race and ethnicity, and literature, most notably Inter/Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine, Anti-Arab Racism in the USA: Where it Comes From and What it Means for Politics, and An Honest Living. He currently teaches at the American University of Cairo. This is his second work of fiction. He tweets at @stevesalaita.
