A Best Book of the Year: NPR and Boston Globe Finally a novel that puts the “pissed” back into “epistolary.” Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics … floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels. His star (he thinks) student can’t catch a break with his brilliant (he thinks) work Accountant in a Bordello, based on Melville’s Bartleby. In short, his life is a tale of woe, and the vehicle this droll and inventive novel uses to tell that tale is a series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students and colleagues to produce, each one of which is a small masterpiece of high dudgeon, low spirits, and passive-aggressive strategies. We recommend Dear Committee Members to you in the strongest possible terms.
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Dear Committee Members
A Novel
by Julie Schumacher
Narrated by Robertson Dean
This is a book for everyone who loves literature, been to college, had a tough job, or just wants a short but intelligent and humorous book! I picked up the audio version from the library. The narration is spot on!
It’s about a Professor of Creative Writing that is writing letters of recommendations and they are a hilarious! He is very honest in a clever way and then shares way too much personal information about himself!
The Professor is working in a building under construction where the department above them are getting a new overhaul. The literature department is not moved and they are in a real mess! Much like his life! We find all about his divorce, failed writing, and disgruntled work there.
Through all of this, we see so much humor and lots of heart too! He has a star student that just can’t get a break. He tries everything!
This is one book I would definitely recommend! Humor, heart, and growth! ( Buy or Borrow the audio version! Definitely worth it!)
some of the “letters” seem very contrived to fit a purpose. yes, I know this is fictional but the author did not really stay in character
It sounded good in the reviews, but I couldn’t get past the first few pages.
I’ve taught at UCB. I can say it’s all true… I couldn’t help but relate and laugh…and cry the tears of frustration…
One of the best academic satires EVER. I frequently give it as a gift. It would be well worth reading if all it were were a collection of hilarious recommendations, but it’s much more: gradually the narrator has an arc and reveals he’s not such a curmudgeon after all. He’s instead a true believer in the power of literature and creativity and education.
But dang when his office is next to the men’s room and he hears every flush, while they’re putting gold lead in the engineering Dept ceiling…
I’ve read other books that tell a story through a series of letters, but this one was different, and especially engaging because of it. Amid the wide-ranging, one-off, (often hilarious) letters of recommendation are others that tell stories of academia’s particular brand of crazy. Others reveal personal relationships with colleagues and even students, adding a tender note to the cynicism.
Hilarious, spot-on depiction of the humanity and hubris of academics. Clever, clever, clever.
An amusing take on academia
Perhaps you have to have been in academia in some way to truly appreciate it, but the main character is not only clever, but could be translated to almost any setting. Not necessarily a laugh out loud read, but definitely provides a lot of chuckles.
Delightful! Absolutely identifiable! I could not stop laughing.
Not being a College professor I struggled to get the underlying story
This book made me laugh out loud so much I was actually crying. Professor Jay Figer, curmudgeon that he is, is my hero. He writes the letters we all WISH we could right but decorum and expectation prevent us from doing so. Schumacher, through Fitger, has actually changed my mind about LOR and those soulless scaled evaluation forms.
For a book comprised of a series of letters, the author does a masterful job of weaving together a narrative in which we feel the slights, big and small, of this standard-bearer of tradition drifting amidst the tide of modernity and irrelevance. Fitger is clearly flawed, and a bit full of himself, but in a way that is endearing, or at least relatable.
What an absolute gem of a book. I really want to read the sequel.
I bought this book because the description sounded relevent to me: I am a college professor who is asked to write a lot of letters and correspond with committees/admin through emails. The character in the book, however was much more self-absorbed and passive aggressive than I am–but also much funnier. I laughed so often while reading this book. I will not spoil anything, but I will say I was somewhat surprised by the way it ended. I am still thinking about that a couple weeks later.
Anyone who has spent years on a university campus will recognize the characters and situations so irreverently addressed in this book.
Hilarious!
Hilarious! Told entirely in memos/emails by a curmudgeonly English professor. Full of sarcasm and irony and just plain funny. Enjoyed very much!
One of my favorite books ever, probably because I, like the main character, am an academic at a small college, but I think anyone would enjoy this creative, ingenious, and hilarious novel, which takes the unusual form of a series of recommendation letters written by a dedicated but somewhat technologically inept professor of English. Highly recommended!
Anyone who has skipped down the halls of academia, gotten stuck in interminable meetings, had to compose letters of recommendation for the less than hard-working student will delight in this funny book, with an interesting protagonist, next to whom you would be delighted to sit at the next faculty function (only if you had tenure).
This is an “epistolary” novel, consisting of LORs (letters of recommendation). If you have ever experienced an academic environment, you are likely to find it hilarious. I did.
The description for this novel begins, “Finally a novel that puts the ‘pissed’ back in ‘epistolary‘.” I can’t say it any better than that. If you like sarcasm, you’ll find protagonist Jay Fitger dripping it in every letter of recommendation he begrudgingly writes. His command of prose makes every horrible missive a joy. Truly funny stuff. And the peek inside university politics is fun too. Jay is his own worst enemy, not to mention toxic to his ex and his dwindling circle of friends. Nevertheless, he surprised me by having a heart in the end.
A hilarious and only-slightly-exaggerated satire of campus life.