With deadpan humor, Work pokes fun at his own naïveté in , a memoir of his rookie years teaching at a small college in a small, mostly Mormon town. From the first pages, Work tells how he navigated the sometimes tricky process of being an outsider, pulling readers—no matter their religious affiliation—into his universal fish-out-of-water tale. The title is drawn from a hunting trip Work made with fellow faculty members, all Mormons. When a load of buckshot whizzed over his head, one of the party hollered, “Don’t shoot the Gentile! We’ll have to hire another one!” Today the College of Southern Utah is a university, and Cedar City, like most small towns in the West, is no longer so culturally isolated. James Work left in 1967 to pursue a doctorate, but his remembrances of the place and its people will do more than make readers—Mormon and non-Mormon alike—laugh out loud. Work’s memoir will resonate with anyone who remembers the challenges and small triumphs of a first job in a new, strange place.