This bawdy satire, which poses as a college guide to partying, weaves advice throughout the (true) exploits of so-called experts in the field. Like college life itself, College and the Art of Partying is alternately hilarious, ponderous, rebellious, angry and experimental. It steers clear of the cliched or usual, and takes a way-offbeat look at a 22-year-old student fumbling for the keys to kicks, truth and enlightenment as the dark cloud of graduation looms in the distance.

For many, the college years are considered to be the summit of existence. College and the Art of Partying pays strong tribute to this wild, flashing time. Irreverent, black humor pilots the trip, yet the characters' frenetic joyride is not without substance. The journey finds them regularly wresting the wheel from a present college culture that too-often cruises on automatic pilot. Thrust in a lifeless, complacent period, they respond by injecting routine partying with philosophic transcendence and defiance.