How is UMass Amherst portrayed in the novel, The War For Gloria?

UMass is a prominent setting in the novel because it is where Molly is murdered. One chapter in the novel is dedicated almost exclusively to a description of UMass as a place of debauchery in the otherwise quaint New England setting of Western Massachusetts. In the context of the novel, which explores Corey’s efforts to learn how to become a man, Lish’s portrayal of UMass as an educational institution seems ironic: it is reduced to a setting of hedonism, epitomized by Molly’s brutal murder.