<P><I>The New York Times Book Review</I> called Neal Stephenson's most recent novel "electrifying" and "hilarious".  but if you want to know Stephenson was doing twenty years before he wrote the epic <I>Cryptonomicon</I>, it's back-to-school time. </I>Back to The Big U</I>, that is, a hilarious send-up of American college life starring after years our of print, <I>The Big U</I> is required reading for anyone interested in the early work of this singular writer.</P>