Misery Boy - Rose Servis

At a prestigious university in Michigan circa 1980, the perplexing poems by Roger Ackroyd have won him a cult following. But who is Roger Ackroyd?

Just about the only person on campus not asking that question is Edward Moses, Ackroyd's secret creator. Instead, Edward is flunking his girlfriend's psych class, fighting with his family, and suffering from writer's block. Enter a rival artist pretending to be Roger Ackroyd. In his last week of college, Edward's obsession with exposing the poser threatens to reveal his own true identity.

A hilarious campus novel in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis, this debut novel skewers the nature of youth, friendship, and ambition, while making us feel for the lovable but hapless Edward.