Three Bachelors and 100 Maidens
‘One Hundred Virgins’ by Jason McGathey
This witty, easy-going varsity retrospective by Medium family chronicler Jason McGathey follows the misadventures of three friends from small town America as they prowl and lounge around the student hotspots and digs at Ohio State University.
One Hundred Virgins is the second of six novels by Jason, and his largely diegetic style is still in development. At the same time it’s clear he’s an inveterate and prolific writer even then. His tireless descriptions of student life, restaurant work (“Columbus has the most restaurants per capita of any city in the world”), the endless stream of students entering and leaving their shared accommodation, and the constant hunt to score ‘chicks’ attest as much.
Just two years later, the 2008 edition of the author’s family saga (on Medium under A Known History) sports a captivatingly authentic prose style that at times takes almost hypnotic command of the reader’s attention. His style and word choices are simpler, truer and more assured, and at times it feels like you’re witnessing something truly special for its realness and immediacy.
With AKH as my first point of entry in Jason’s oeuvre, it meant OHV had a tough act to ‘follow’ as my next read, though technically it was written before AKH. With the pleasures of…
