This novel is set at Indiana University in the late 1930s when Alfred Kinsey (Professor K or “Prok” to his “inner circle”) was a faculty member there. Kinsey was not only conducting the research on sexual behavior that would make him famous—or perhaps infamous—but he was also teaching courses. One of those courses was a locally notorious seminar on marriage, which actually only hinted at the lengths to which he and his circle of assistants were willing to take their research. The novel is set into motion when an undergraduate named John Milk enrolls in the seminar after lying about being engaged to be married in order to be accepted into it. In his review for the
Chicago Sun-Times, Randy Michael Signor perceptively describes this moment as Milk’s entering “the rabbit…
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Citation: Kich, Martin. "The Inner Circle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 July 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41649, accessed 31 October 2024.]
