The New York Times Book Review called Neal Stephenson's most recent novel "electrifying" and "hilarious". But if you want to know what Stephenson was doing 20 years before he wrote the epic Cryptonomicon, it's back-to-school time. Back to The Big U, that is, an hilarious send-up of American college life, starring 30-year-old junior Casimir Radon. Now reissued after years out of print, The Big U is required listening for anyone interested in the early work of this singular writer.