Thorough and Efficient

“In Thorough & Efficient, Peter E. Murphy gives us a real depiction of the malaise of so-called “inner city” education. Murphy, who taught for 29 years at Atlantic City High School, is relentlessly accurate and often funny as he renders one indelible moment after another. In doing so he replaces the Hollywood script of the “hero” teacher, sacrificing everything so the orchestra can rise at the incipient miracle, with the realities of violence, indifference, intractable corruption, and everyday effort, skill, and decency. If there’s any heroism here, it is that Murphy never romanticizes his job or his students, which is probably why he lasted so long.”

$10