an important step forward in the Japanese mystery genre. He findsKido’s use of rather quotidian themes (rather than Holmes’s outlandishand unlikely cases) not only unique, but ‘‘one might even say superior’’to Conan Doyle’s work (xxxi). Whether or not readers reach a similarconclusion depends on personal taste, but there is no doubt that thefourteen stories MacDonald has chosen are worth reading. Thetranslation is first-rate, with helpful annotations throughout.

However, it must be said that not all of the stories are particularlyengaging, especially to those readers without a working knowledge ofJapanese history. The denouements rely on fortune or dumb luck asoften as they do good detective work (one too many times Hanshichigets a hunch he will solve a mystery by visiting some remote area, andsubsequently does so), and there is little in terms of characterdevelopment or serious narrative tension. Nonetheless, even those newto the world of Japanese period fiction should enjoy this tour of mid-century Edo: the bathhouses, geisha, tea-houses, samurai, festivals,Shinto shrines, and ‘‘ghosts’’ are all presented with dry humor and anative’s sharp eye for detail.

Todd S. MunsonRandolph-Macon College

Teen Television: Essays on Programming and Fandom. Eds. SharonMarie Ross and Louisa Ellen Stein. Jefferson, NC: McFarland,2008.

In ‘‘Watching Teen TV,’’ the introductory essay in Teen Television,editors Sharon Marie Ross and Louisa Ellen Stein illustrate the finedetails of Teen TV. Ross, an assistant professor in the televisiondepartment at Columbia College, Chicago, and Stein, an assistantprofessor of television, film, and new media at San Diego StateUniversity, classify Teen TV as a genre initially marketed for the teenconsumer. The authors summarize a brief history of this genre, whiledocumenting the market shift to a wider audience, including familiesand adults. Teen TV encompasses elements of popular culture, inparticular, the mass media representation of consumerist teen culture.Ross and Stein note the position of Teen TV in commercial culture,between ‘‘mainstream’’ and ‘‘elite’’ culture.

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This volume comprises twelve essays covering the current culture ofTeen TV. The first few essays outline the industrial context of Teen TVas it pertains to the major networks marketed for this genre. Themiddle section explores the roles portrayed by teens as the protagonistsin multiple series. The final group of essays appraises the audienceconnection with Teen TV.

‘‘Teen Television and the WB Television Network’’ and ‘‘DefiningTeen Culture: The N Network’’ examine the ground-breakingmovement Teen TV has had due to the marketing genius of the WBand the steady rise of the N. The Warner Brothers broadcast televisionnetwork, the WB, is noted for targeting the niche teen audience.Valerie Wee evaluates the progression of the WB from its initial launchin 1995, through the first few years of struggle, to the eventual boomof the Dawson’s Creek era, and its success since. The Network for Teens,the N, debuted in 2002. Ross takes the reader through the creation ofthis cable network, a younger player in Teen TV. Ross highlights thedifferences between this network and the WB.

Two of the strongest essays in this volume, ‘‘Riding the Third Wave:The Multiple Feminisms of Gilmore Girls’’ and ‘‘‘That Girl of Yours-She’s Pretty Hardboiled, Huh?’: Detecting Feminism in Veronica Mars’’explore two popular Teen TV series. Francesca Gamber ties the themeof third-wave feminism that evolved in the early 1990s to the wittyand modern package that is the Gilmore Girls. Gamber also delineatesaspects of second-wave feminism that assist in creating the frameworkof the series. Andrea Braithwaite exposes the background of feminismthat carries throughout the series Veronica Mars. The author takes thereader through a journey of feminism as realized in this series about ahigh school ‘‘chick dick,’’ or female detective. Both essays do a first-ratejob in uncovering the theme of feminism represented in two series withfemale protagonists as the leads.

An unexpected addition to the volume was the essay ‘‘‘TheyStole Me’: The O.C., Masculinity, and the Strategies of Teen TV,’’written by Sue Turnbull. She studies Teen TV and its representationof and connection to young men. Teen TV is typically classified asattracting young female viewers, but this essay turns that notion onits head.

I have been a devoted fan of Teen TV since my preteen yearsand, admittedly, well into my adult years. Ross and Stein do acommendable job coediting a diverse volume of essays that address

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multiple aspects of Teen TV. Both adult viewers and teen devotees ofTeen TV should take a moment to turn off the television and tune intothis useful book.

Colette Marie O’BannionChapman University

Inside Greek U.: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure,Power, and Prestige. Alan D. DeSantis. Lexington: University Pressof Kentucky, 2007.

In his detailed study of the modern, distinctively American Greeksystem experience, Alan D. DeSantis posits that the fraternity andsorority experience has consequences that reverberate long after kegparties have run dry and group serenade lyrics have been forgotten.Rather, the Greek system reinforces a traditional, heteronormativeview of sexuality and gender, with static behavioral dictums thatshape individuals’ paradigms from the formative college years onthrough adulthood. Like Alexandra Robbins’s 2004 book Pledged: TheSecret Lives of Sororities, DeSantis’s Greek U reads like an undercoveranalysis of the modern Greek experience. Yet DeSantis, a commu-nications professor at the University of Kentucky, is able to movebeyond mere sensationalism to offer a theoretically nuanced genderargument.

The rigidity of gendered behavioral expectations produces anamplified version of sex-role identity; being Greek produces moreproponents of hypermasculinity and idealized femininity than does theindependent college experience. This form of sexual-identity-on-steroids prizes an inflexible dichotomy of hypermasculinity and passivefemininity; DeSantis demonstrates how the Greek mindset transitionsits members from postadolescent ‘‘Studs and Virgins’’ into middle-aged‘‘Soccer Moms and Corporate Dads.’’

As social science, DeSantis’s research is exemplary, relying onstatistical models and in-depth personal interviews to capture both theintimate reality and broader scope of life in and after the Greek systemwhich one in ten American college students join. Among his 217interviewees, DeSantis classifies the fraternities and sororities into‘‘elite, aspirer, and struggler organizations’’ (13) in order to analyze the

384 Book Reviews