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Jason Fitger #1
Dear Committee Members
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 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.
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 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.
181 pages, Hardcover
First published August 19, 2014
About the author
Julie Schumacher
23 books381 followersJULIE SCHUMACHER grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Oberlin College and Cornell University, where she earned her MFA. Her first novel, The Body Is Water, was published by Soho Press in 1995 and was an ALA Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her 2014 novel, Dear Committee Members, won the Thurber Prize for American Humor; she is the first woman to have been so honored. She lives in St. Paul and is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English at the University of Minnesota.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,016 reviews
December 14, 2022
Dear Fellow Readers:
I am pleased to endorse to you the brief epistolary novel, "Dear Committee Members." This book will most likely be hilarious if you are familiar with the onuses and whims of bureaucratic academia, as the narrator, Mr. Jason Fitger, is one of the (few) tenured members of the English Department in a small, midwestern college. However, it would also be enjoyable for people who enjoy acerbic wit. Undoubtedly, whatever your persuasion, you will find this work a quick, diverting read.
Mr. Fitger is often hilarious in his carefully worded but politically insensate language. For instance, in describing the English Department to the new department chair, he notes a third of the staff are ineligible for the position, and "the remaining two-thirds of the faculty, bearing the scars of disenfranchisement and long-term abuse, are busy tending to personal grudges like scraps of carrion on which they gnaw in the gloom of their offices."
The remarkable thing about Mr. Fitger, of course, is the strange double think he operates under. In one letter, for instance, he requests his literary agent take a look at the initial chapters of a protege's book. A few sentences later, he apologizes then adds, "Well, never mind. Water under the bridge and all that; I'm sure the twelve-year-old you assigned the task of evaluating my work did her utmost." He is what you get when you remove impulse control from a highly articulate writer.
If you will permit me a minor digression, I recently had a conversation with a notable person, shall we say, a student of the mind, who suggested that as individuals, we tell ourselves stories about what others around us are thinking. These stories often represent or reaffirm our own world view rather than true curiosity of another's experience. So if I would note that Jason seems somewhat disenfranchised from his own life and somewhat socially inept, am I just reaffirming a preferred story? However, there was a point two-thirds through the book when I realized the narrator was a bit of an ass. It's not my preferred way of interpreting the world, but how else can you explain a recommendation letter for a colleague applying for an associate dean position in which he answers the question, "Context of My Acquaintanceship" by saying, "Carole and I slept together--without cohabiting or making promises we would be unable to honor--for almost three years."
That said, the end seemed a bit forced in the direction of a mostly happy ending, consisting as it did of a significant amount of personal growth. Personally, I remain disbelieving, but I suppose all things are possible. However, as I found the overall story clever and engaging, I would not hesitate to recommend "Dear Committee Members."
In solidarity for reading amusement,
carol.
P.S. Emma Deplores GR Censorship nails the actual analysis of the book ( here)
I am pleased to endorse to you the brief epistolary novel, "Dear Committee Members." This book will most likely be hilarious if you are familiar with the onuses and whims of bureaucratic academia, as the narrator, Mr. Jason Fitger, is one of the (few) tenured members of the English Department in a small, midwestern college. However, it would also be enjoyable for people who enjoy acerbic wit. Undoubtedly, whatever your persuasion, you will find this work a quick, diverting read.
Mr. Fitger is often hilarious in his carefully worded but politically insensate language. For instance, in describing the English Department to the new department chair, he notes a third of the staff are ineligible for the position, and "the remaining two-thirds of the faculty, bearing the scars of disenfranchisement and long-term abuse, are busy tending to personal grudges like scraps of carrion on which they gnaw in the gloom of their offices."
The remarkable thing about Mr. Fitger, of course, is the strange double think he operates under. In one letter, for instance, he requests his literary agent take a look at the initial chapters of a protege's book. A few sentences later, he apologizes then adds, "Well, never mind. Water under the bridge and all that; I'm sure the twelve-year-old you assigned the task of evaluating my work did her utmost." He is what you get when you remove impulse control from a highly articulate writer.
If you will permit me a minor digression, I recently had a conversation with a notable person, shall we say, a student of the mind, who suggested that as individuals, we tell ourselves stories about what others around us are thinking. These stories often represent or reaffirm our own world view rather than true curiosity of another's experience. So if I would note that Jason seems somewhat disenfranchised from his own life and somewhat socially inept, am I just reaffirming a preferred story? However, there was a point two-thirds through the book when I realized the narrator was a bit of an ass. It's not my preferred way of interpreting the world, but how else can you explain a recommendation letter for a colleague applying for an associate dean position in which he answers the question, "Context of My Acquaintanceship" by saying, "Carole and I slept together--without cohabiting or making promises we would be unable to honor--for almost three years."
That said, the end seemed a bit forced in the direction of a mostly happy ending, consisting as it did of a significant amount of personal growth. Personally, I remain disbelieving, but I suppose all things are possible. However, as I found the overall story clever and engaging, I would not hesitate to recommend "Dear Committee Members."
In solidarity for reading amusement,
carol.
P.S. Emma Deplores GR Censorship nails the actual analysis of the book ( here)
October 13, 2018
this is an like epistolary version of Lucky Jim, in which a jovial but pompous and generally unlikeable blowhard of an english professor bloviates and alienates his way through a series of letters of recommendation, straying from the task at hand to insert his own unrelated gripes and personal attacks, destroying bridges he has already burned, while somehow, admirably, also providing a narrative arc.
it's just a little wisp of a novel, but anyone who has spent any time at all in the halls of academia will recognize and giggle at the frustrations and hoop-jumping plaguing professor fitger, poor beleaguered dinosaur of the creative writing/lit department. he, like many of us, bemoans the constant paperwork required of his position: overwhelmed by the number of letters of recommendation he is asked to write, frequently for students he has not even taught, or met.
he also suffers from the increasing marginalization of his department; professors shoehorned into smaller and smaller quarters while simultaneously being forced to take on more responsibilities, leadership positions filled by people outside the department or otherwise unqualified, equipment breaking down and not being repaired, and the constant din of construction being done on the economics department, which shares a building with the english department, but seem to get all the perks, presumably because their future alum will go on to more lucrative careers, with more money to nostalgically donate to their former school in the beneficence of their glory-days nostalgia. during my undergrad days at NYU, it was clear that those chumps in the stern business school had way more perks than the poor old stodgy college of arts and sciences, i guess to better prepare them for lives of privilege and schwag, while we shivered in our dickensian, poorly-heated rooms with industrial gray walls and smeared windows. ah, memories…
prof. fitger is also incensed by modernity, and the increasing reliance on/expectations of the technological world, whose cold automation displeases him, particularly since his department's IT staff are condescending, when they can even be found.
his personal life is also in a shambles. he has left a trail of scorned women in his wake - women who are in powerful professional positions, from whom he needs to beg favors despite their messy histories, which they are not yet ready to forgive.
add to that the firework trajectory of his writing career - one giant first-novel burst of success followed by fizzle after fizzle, and you can see how he has turned into such a bitter man, using these letters to vent about his various personal and professional slights, and enacting petty revenges as he veers into frequently funny asides and anecdotes. but while he is generally frustrated with the number of LORs he has to write, he has also taken a shine to one student in particular on whose behalf he writes many genuine letters, trying to get him entree into funded programs and the attention of his own former editor, finding himself in the unenviable position of beseeching those he has himself pissed off in the past, who are unwilling to receive his requests favorably.
it's short and funny, and also a little sad, but anyone who knows this world will find themselves nodding along, even if they themselves have never been a cranky old professor.
come to my blog!
it's just a little wisp of a novel, but anyone who has spent any time at all in the halls of academia will recognize and giggle at the frustrations and hoop-jumping plaguing professor fitger, poor beleaguered dinosaur of the creative writing/lit department. he, like many of us, bemoans the constant paperwork required of his position: overwhelmed by the number of letters of recommendation he is asked to write, frequently for students he has not even taught, or met.
he also suffers from the increasing marginalization of his department; professors shoehorned into smaller and smaller quarters while simultaneously being forced to take on more responsibilities, leadership positions filled by people outside the department or otherwise unqualified, equipment breaking down and not being repaired, and the constant din of construction being done on the economics department, which shares a building with the english department, but seem to get all the perks, presumably because their future alum will go on to more lucrative careers, with more money to nostalgically donate to their former school in the beneficence of their glory-days nostalgia. during my undergrad days at NYU, it was clear that those chumps in the stern business school had way more perks than the poor old stodgy college of arts and sciences, i guess to better prepare them for lives of privilege and schwag, while we shivered in our dickensian, poorly-heated rooms with industrial gray walls and smeared windows. ah, memories…
prof. fitger is also incensed by modernity, and the increasing reliance on/expectations of the technological world, whose cold automation displeases him, particularly since his department's IT staff are condescending, when they can even be found.
his personal life is also in a shambles. he has left a trail of scorned women in his wake - women who are in powerful professional positions, from whom he needs to beg favors despite their messy histories, which they are not yet ready to forgive.
add to that the firework trajectory of his writing career - one giant first-novel burst of success followed by fizzle after fizzle, and you can see how he has turned into such a bitter man, using these letters to vent about his various personal and professional slights, and enacting petty revenges as he veers into frequently funny asides and anecdotes. but while he is generally frustrated with the number of LORs he has to write, he has also taken a shine to one student in particular on whose behalf he writes many genuine letters, trying to get him entree into funded programs and the attention of his own former editor, finding himself in the unenviable position of beseeching those he has himself pissed off in the past, who are unwilling to receive his requests favorably.
it's short and funny, and also a little sad, but anyone who knows this world will find themselves nodding along, even if they themselves have never been a cranky old professor.
April 25, 2020
Ms. Nan A. Talese
Doubleday Publishing
1745 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
Dear Ms. Talese:
I saw online that you were the contact person for Doubleday Publishing and that manuscripts must be submitted by agents because you do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Well, relax Nan, that isn’t why I am contacting you.
No, I have several other reasons I would like to tell you about:
• I became aware of the book Dear Committee Members when several of my respected friends gave it good reviews on Goodreads. I also liked the opening line that you all used in your description of the book: Finally, a novel that puts the "pissed" back into "epistolary." Very clever.
• It is a clever book. Epistolary novels are tricky propositions and Julie Schumacher pulled it off. She was able to do that because it is obvious that she is intimately acquainted with the academic world that she describes in the epistles that her protagonist, a professor of creative writing and literature, writes to – well, to everybody – but especially to the many administrators, who, by the way, outnumber the full time classroom teaching professors at his university. That places his institution smack dab in the mainstream and I could feel his pain.
• Some of the epistles made me laugh out loud and some of them made me cuss like a sailor, because they were so on target. I spent many years as the chair of my department in the small college where I taught. I took the job for the same reason that people in Schumacher’s book did: because nobody else would take the job and somebody had to. It was a thankless job and I accomplished little, but somebody had to do it. I also took on the distinguished sounding job of President of the Faculty Forum, because nobody else would take the job and somebody had to. It was a thankless job and I accomplished little, but somebody had to do it.
• But here is the real reason I am contacting you. I purchased a first edition (used, but nevertheless, first edition), hard cover copy of the book. I was surprised when I noticed on Goodreads that that particular edition was not listed. So I created one, though the generic copy that resulted looks nothing like the canary yellow cover that my copy sports. When I reached page seven in my reading, I discovered why the first edition did not appear on Goodreads. There is no page seven. There also is no page eight – or nine – or ten. They were not torn out. It is obvious that they were never there in the first place. Is this what putting “pissed back into epistolary” means? If so, it worked.
I’m not requesting a refund, because I really enjoyed the book. In fact, it is my favorite book of the year. But I do think that I am owed something. By my calculations there are at least two – maybe three – epistles missing from my copy. I am asking that you please do one of two things: 1). send me the missing epistles in an email or 2). copy them and send them via USPS.
I trust that since you are not being swamped with unsolicited manuscripts that you will be able to find the time to do this for me.
I await your reply -- or the missing epistles.
Sincerely,
Howard
Doubleday Publishing
1745 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
Dear Ms. Talese:
I saw online that you were the contact person for Doubleday Publishing and that manuscripts must be submitted by agents because you do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Well, relax Nan, that isn’t why I am contacting you.
No, I have several other reasons I would like to tell you about:
• I became aware of the book Dear Committee Members when several of my respected friends gave it good reviews on Goodreads. I also liked the opening line that you all used in your description of the book: Finally, a novel that puts the "pissed" back into "epistolary." Very clever.
• It is a clever book. Epistolary novels are tricky propositions and Julie Schumacher pulled it off. She was able to do that because it is obvious that she is intimately acquainted with the academic world that she describes in the epistles that her protagonist, a professor of creative writing and literature, writes to – well, to everybody – but especially to the many administrators, who, by the way, outnumber the full time classroom teaching professors at his university. That places his institution smack dab in the mainstream and I could feel his pain.
• Some of the epistles made me laugh out loud and some of them made me cuss like a sailor, because they were so on target. I spent many years as the chair of my department in the small college where I taught. I took the job for the same reason that people in Schumacher’s book did: because nobody else would take the job and somebody had to. It was a thankless job and I accomplished little, but somebody had to do it. I also took on the distinguished sounding job of President of the Faculty Forum, because nobody else would take the job and somebody had to. It was a thankless job and I accomplished little, but somebody had to do it.
• But here is the real reason I am contacting you. I purchased a first edition (used, but nevertheless, first edition), hard cover copy of the book. I was surprised when I noticed on Goodreads that that particular edition was not listed. So I created one, though the generic copy that resulted looks nothing like the canary yellow cover that my copy sports. When I reached page seven in my reading, I discovered why the first edition did not appear on Goodreads. There is no page seven. There also is no page eight – or nine – or ten. They were not torn out. It is obvious that they were never there in the first place. Is this what putting “pissed back into epistolary” means? If so, it worked.
I’m not requesting a refund, because I really enjoyed the book. In fact, it is my favorite book of the year. But I do think that I am owed something. By my calculations there are at least two – maybe three – epistles missing from my copy. I am asking that you please do one of two things: 1). send me the missing epistles in an email or 2). copy them and send them via USPS.
I trust that since you are not being swamped with unsolicited manuscripts that you will be able to find the time to do this for me.
I await your reply -- or the missing epistles.
Sincerely,
Howard
December 10, 2020
Ahhhh, my favorite pit of despair: Academia
This fit the 2017 PopSugar reading challenge (A Book of Letters) just perfectly. I wanted a book only told through letters. No narration, no forward, no nothing. And, Dear Committee Members followed that to the letter (ha).
This story is told through a series of increasingly passive-aggressive and personal letters from Jason Fitger, a creative writing professor at Payne University. (Ha. Payne)
He becomes increasingly frustrated by funding, school politics, an ever increasing demand for letters of recommendation (etc) and he vents every. last. feeling. through his letters.
I aspire to be as petty as him.
Endearing and charming, Jason maintains his stance as one of the last defenders of the written word. He carves out his territory and manages to keep the ever-present slog of the digital world world at bay. (though, I was surprised by how much emotion that ending hit me with. Punch in the gut. )
Audiobook Comments
Well-read. Good characterization and tone throughout the passive-aggressive letters.
YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads
This fit the 2017 PopSugar reading challenge (A Book of Letters) just perfectly. I wanted a book only told through letters. No narration, no forward, no nothing. And, Dear Committee Members followed that to the letter (ha).
This story is told through a series of increasingly passive-aggressive and personal letters from Jason Fitger, a creative writing professor at Payne University. (Ha. Payne)
He becomes increasingly frustrated by funding, school politics, an ever increasing demand for letters of recommendation (etc) and he vents every. last. feeling. through his letters.
I aspire to be as petty as him.
Endearing and charming, Jason maintains his stance as one of the last defenders of the written word. He carves out his territory and manages to keep the ever-present slog of the digital world world at bay. (though, I was surprised by how much emotion that ending hit me with. Punch in the gut. )
Audiobook Comments
Well-read. Good characterization and tone throughout the passive-aggressive letters.
YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads
August 16, 2015
Dear Goodreads friend,
I am writing to highly recommend that you read Dear Committee Members, especially if you have a propensity to enjoy sardonic academic satires written in the form of LORs (letters of reference) written by a cantankerous professor of English literature who has a tendency to irk many colleagues and former spouses, has an endless supply of pet peeves, but nevertheless cares for a handful of his more talented students and colleagues and has many valid -- albeit overwrought -- observations to make about the decline of academia in general and the humanities in particular. Jay Fitger is the fictional English professor in question, and his story is told entirely through some of his LORs -- which he numbers at approximately 1300 at this point in his career and which he claims detract him from his ability to do his real writing. The LORs are rarely on point, almost never flattering to the subject of the letter, and are often complaints about his department and university, the state of academia, the world in general and his pitiful love life -- in no particular order of importance. And, of course, not surprisingly, in the best tradition of some academic writing, Professor Fitger's language is delightfully simultaneously circuitous and precise -- if that makes any sense. In closing, dear Goodreads friend, I highly recommend this book if you need an at times laugh out loud comic interlude, and academic satires turn your crank -- think of Richard Russo's Straight Man or David Lodge's earlier novels.
Yours truly, a former graduate student of English literature who happily headed for the hills many moons ago but nevertheless loves a good academic satire that justifies the decision to abandon academic life for more mundane pursuits,
Esil
I am writing to highly recommend that you read Dear Committee Members, especially if you have a propensity to enjoy sardonic academic satires written in the form of LORs (letters of reference) written by a cantankerous professor of English literature who has a tendency to irk many colleagues and former spouses, has an endless supply of pet peeves, but nevertheless cares for a handful of his more talented students and colleagues and has many valid -- albeit overwrought -- observations to make about the decline of academia in general and the humanities in particular. Jay Fitger is the fictional English professor in question, and his story is told entirely through some of his LORs -- which he numbers at approximately 1300 at this point in his career and which he claims detract him from his ability to do his real writing. The LORs are rarely on point, almost never flattering to the subject of the letter, and are often complaints about his department and university, the state of academia, the world in general and his pitiful love life -- in no particular order of importance. And, of course, not surprisingly, in the best tradition of some academic writing, Professor Fitger's language is delightfully simultaneously circuitous and precise -- if that makes any sense. In closing, dear Goodreads friend, I highly recommend this book if you need an at times laugh out loud comic interlude, and academic satires turn your crank -- think of Richard Russo's Straight Man or David Lodge's earlier novels.
Yours truly, a former graduate student of English literature who happily headed for the hills many moons ago but nevertheless loves a good academic satire that justifies the decision to abandon academic life for more mundane pursuits,
Esil
August 9, 2018
Dear Author,
It is with deeply felt regret that I have to tell you that I can't recommend your book to the wider Goodreads community, despite the fact that I really liked it. It even made me laugh out loud many times, serving as a perfect digression from some heavy reading that I had to digest this weekend.
Why, you might rightly ask, dear Author, will I then not do you the favour to write something nice about it? Something about the hilarious idea to reinvent the epistolary genre with a funny collection of letters of recommendation? Why not admit that I had the time of my life imagining that I would dare to write exactly what I think instead of those idiotic nonsense sentences that look good but tell you nothing about the real person I am recommending? Why not mention that I spent an hour reflecting on my dilemma when I had to write letters for fifteen adolescents, all applying to the same schools? What to do? Write the same over and over again and nullify the effect of every single letter? Be honest and maybe destroy the chances of some students whose only wish was to go on with their education, something I support from the bottom of my heart? Why do I not use the chance to digress from the topic, just like the less than lovable writer in the novel? Why do I not at least say something about how the misery of that fictional academic institution made me laugh hysterically because I recognised EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM: the construction site, the funding, the colleagues, administration and students, not to mention the personal issues? I must have something to say about all of that?
Yes, dear Author, I do!
But you have brilliantly made a case for the absolute absurdity of letters of recommendation, and since you completely convinced me with your deeply sarcastic, yet incredibly true story, told entirely in the form of frustrated and ridiculously funny and honest LORs, I decided to act on your implicit advice and NOT WRITE A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION!
Having said that, sometimes they work despite their idiocy, for I read this book on recommendation from a fellow Goodreader, and I had a perfectly blissful time!
Please accept my honest apology for not recommending this to whoever has ever set foot in an academic and/or pedagogical institution!
Disrespectfully,
The Delighted Reader
It is with deeply felt regret that I have to tell you that I can't recommend your book to the wider Goodreads community, despite the fact that I really liked it. It even made me laugh out loud many times, serving as a perfect digression from some heavy reading that I had to digest this weekend.
Why, you might rightly ask, dear Author, will I then not do you the favour to write something nice about it? Something about the hilarious idea to reinvent the epistolary genre with a funny collection of letters of recommendation? Why not admit that I had the time of my life imagining that I would dare to write exactly what I think instead of those idiotic nonsense sentences that look good but tell you nothing about the real person I am recommending? Why not mention that I spent an hour reflecting on my dilemma when I had to write letters for fifteen adolescents, all applying to the same schools? What to do? Write the same over and over again and nullify the effect of every single letter? Be honest and maybe destroy the chances of some students whose only wish was to go on with their education, something I support from the bottom of my heart? Why do I not use the chance to digress from the topic, just like the less than lovable writer in the novel? Why do I not at least say something about how the misery of that fictional academic institution made me laugh hysterically because I recognised EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM: the construction site, the funding, the colleagues, administration and students, not to mention the personal issues? I must have something to say about all of that?
Yes, dear Author, I do!
But you have brilliantly made a case for the absolute absurdity of letters of recommendation, and since you completely convinced me with your deeply sarcastic, yet incredibly true story, told entirely in the form of frustrated and ridiculously funny and honest LORs, I decided to act on your implicit advice and NOT WRITE A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION!
Having said that, sometimes they work despite their idiocy, for I read this book on recommendation from a fellow Goodreader, and I had a perfectly blissful time!
Please accept my honest apology for not recommending this to whoever has ever set foot in an academic and/or pedagogical institution!
Disrespectfully,
The Delighted Reader
January 19, 2016
Anyone who has spent time in academia will get a chuckle out of this book. It's a collection of letters from a disgruntled English professor at a small college. Most of the missives are Letters of Recommendation for students, but there are also emails and memos to colleagues.
The novel, written by a woman who is a writing professor at the University of Minnesota, smartly touches on a lot of the current problems in higher education, including its overreliance on part-time instructors instead of full-time faculty members, the defunding of humanities programs (and the emphasis on science and tech), and the rising cost of a college degree, which forces students to take out more and greater loans, which they have trouble paying back because of the poor job market. It's a heaping mess of ARGH.
I've worked at a college for more than five years, and parts of this novel made me laugh so hard I started crying. It's a dark comedy, to be sure, and there are some sad and frustrating elements to the story. But it's a fast and (mostly) fun read, and I heartily recommend it.
Favorite Quotes
"As a student of literature and creative writing, Ms. Newcome honed crucial traits that will be of use to you: imagination, patience, resourcefulness, and empathy. The reading and writing of fiction both requires and instills empathy — the insertion of oneself into the life of another."
"If every member of the human race evinced a fondness for literature and even a moderate level of dexterity with the written word, I would be a happier, if not more well-adjusted, man."
"I am always taken aback when students confide in me that beneath their desire to write lies a quest for permanence. It's odd but touching, I think, that even during this disposable age, while consigning great mountains of refuse to landfills and to atolls of plastic in the Pacific, these young would-be novelists and poets believe that art is eternal. Au contraire: we are in the business of ephemera, the era of floating islands of trash, and most of the things we feel deeply and inscribe on the page will disappear."
"As for me, the closest I have come to exaltation has been here at the university, with a book in my hand. Literature has served me faithfully (no pun intended) as an ersatz religion, and I would wager that the pursuit of the ineffable via aesthetics in various forms has saved as many foundering souls as a belief in god."
The novel, written by a woman who is a writing professor at the University of Minnesota, smartly touches on a lot of the current problems in higher education, including its overreliance on part-time instructors instead of full-time faculty members, the defunding of humanities programs (and the emphasis on science and tech), and the rising cost of a college degree, which forces students to take out more and greater loans, which they have trouble paying back because of the poor job market. It's a heaping mess of ARGH.
I've worked at a college for more than five years, and parts of this novel made me laugh so hard I started crying. It's a dark comedy, to be sure, and there are some sad and frustrating elements to the story. But it's a fast and (mostly) fun read, and I heartily recommend it.
Favorite Quotes
"As a student of literature and creative writing, Ms. Newcome honed crucial traits that will be of use to you: imagination, patience, resourcefulness, and empathy. The reading and writing of fiction both requires and instills empathy — the insertion of oneself into the life of another."
"If every member of the human race evinced a fondness for literature and even a moderate level of dexterity with the written word, I would be a happier, if not more well-adjusted, man."
"I am always taken aback when students confide in me that beneath their desire to write lies a quest for permanence. It's odd but touching, I think, that even during this disposable age, while consigning great mountains of refuse to landfills and to atolls of plastic in the Pacific, these young would-be novelists and poets believe that art is eternal. Au contraire: we are in the business of ephemera, the era of floating islands of trash, and most of the things we feel deeply and inscribe on the page will disappear."
"As for me, the closest I have come to exaltation has been here at the university, with a book in my hand. Literature has served me faithfully (no pun intended) as an ersatz religion, and I would wager that the pursuit of the ineffable via aesthetics in various forms has saved as many foundering souls as a belief in god."
February 1, 2016
This is a very funny and also a very smart look at the contemporary world of academia as seen through the endless numbers of letters of recommendation written by Jason T. Fitger, a professor of Creative Writing and English at the fictional Payne University, which is located somewhere in the Midwest.
Like so many other disciplines in the Humanities, Fitger's English department appears to be under siege. Its budget has been slashed; full-time tenured faculty are being forced out in favor of part-time, non-tenured wage slaves; the graduate program is in decline; the physical facilities are falling apart, and the administration apparently couldn't care less.
To add insult to injury, a sociologist--a sociologist!--has just been installed as head of the English department and while the department can't even afford a working copy machine, the university is spending a fortune to renovate the floors above the English department, creating veritable Taj Mahal in which to house the damned Economics department.
Poor Fitger's personal life is about as troubled as his professional life. He's divorced; his once promising writing career has tanked, and, like an academic Rodney Dangerfield, he seems to get no respect from anyone. But the guy writes brilliant letters of recommendation, the kind that many professors would love to write if only they had the wits and the guts to do so. Through the letters he pours out his commentary on the state of affairs, academic and personal, and those who have spent any time at all laboring in the academic vineyards will sadly nod their heads in agreement--that is when they're not laughing out loud.
Julie Schumacher has conceived of a great idea for a novel and has carried it off very well. This is, perhaps, the best novel set in academia since Richard Russo's brilliant Straight Man. It's a great read.
Like so many other disciplines in the Humanities, Fitger's English department appears to be under siege. Its budget has been slashed; full-time tenured faculty are being forced out in favor of part-time, non-tenured wage slaves; the graduate program is in decline; the physical facilities are falling apart, and the administration apparently couldn't care less.
To add insult to injury, a sociologist--a sociologist!--has just been installed as head of the English department and while the department can't even afford a working copy machine, the university is spending a fortune to renovate the floors above the English department, creating veritable Taj Mahal in which to house the damned Economics department.
Poor Fitger's personal life is about as troubled as his professional life. He's divorced; his once promising writing career has tanked, and, like an academic Rodney Dangerfield, he seems to get no respect from anyone. But the guy writes brilliant letters of recommendation, the kind that many professors would love to write if only they had the wits and the guts to do so. Through the letters he pours out his commentary on the state of affairs, academic and personal, and those who have spent any time at all laboring in the academic vineyards will sadly nod their heads in agreement--that is when they're not laughing out loud.
Julie Schumacher has conceived of a great idea for a novel and has carried it off very well. This is, perhaps, the best novel set in academia since Richard Russo's brilliant Straight Man. It's a great read.
August 9, 2018
I join readers before me who recommend Professor Fitger’s endless letters of recommendations.
Funny - clever - book!!!
“Signing off with the usual commitment to righteousness and justice,
Jay Fitger, Winner’s Circle
American Letter of Recommendation Society”
P.S. “I assume it was someone’s idea of a joke to insert in the minutes from last week’s budget meeting the idea of me serving as associate chair? Given your three-year mandate to ‘turn English around’, I presume that — if you need assistance quelling the rabble —you’d search for some hapless junior faculty member who lacked the clout to refuse. As for me, I am probably the least likely associate chair you could find. No one would listen to me; I seldom listen to myself”.
Funny - clever - book!!!
“Signing off with the usual commitment to righteousness and justice,
Jay Fitger, Winner’s Circle
American Letter of Recommendation Society”
P.S. “I assume it was someone’s idea of a joke to insert in the minutes from last week’s budget meeting the idea of me serving as associate chair? Given your three-year mandate to ‘turn English around’, I presume that — if you need assistance quelling the rabble —you’d search for some hapless junior faculty member who lacked the clout to refuse. As for me, I am probably the least likely associate chair you could find. No one would listen to me; I seldom listen to myself”.
October 25, 2014
Of course there is a serious commentary on the state of academic affairs here especially of English and Creative Writing Departments, but this book was extremely funny and I loved
it . I don't mean to diminish the serious underlying message but I laughed out loud . Jay Fitger , Professor of Creative Writing and English at Payne University seems to spend a good part of his day writing letters of recommendation for students and former students for jobs, graduate school or literary residence programs . The letters are scathingly sarcastic and equally hilarious . This book is comprised of these letters .
Students that he taught and students that he doesn't even know ask him to recommend them for child care , IT and catering jobs and a host of other jobs totally unrelated to their English degrees. These are also very telling letters and we learn a bit about Fitger's personal life as well since the director of a literary residence program is one of his exes . His other ex works in admissions at the law school and he sometimes recommends students to these programs. So we get to know a little about his past relationships and also his less than lustrous literary career . He'd come across as a pathetic character if not for his intelligent humor and the impression that deep down he's really a good guy .
Also amusing are the letters he writes for colleagues aspiring to other jobs or being nominated for committee assignments . Not only do we find out what he really thinks of these colleagues , but we get the sense of the low status of the English department in his comments about the poor conditions such the leaky pipes in the men's room , and not filling multiple vacant positions . Then in recommending a colleague for another job , one at a Bible college ,he goes so far as to tell how he slept with her for three years.
I won't go on because I don't want to spoil it any more than I have for anyone who reads this . I would recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining read with some substance beneath the funny lines and I suspect that anyone who is or was part of academia will love this book. It's a short book and a quick read because you will find yourself going to the next letter as soon as you finish the one you've just read.
Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley.
it . I don't mean to diminish the serious underlying message but I laughed out loud . Jay Fitger , Professor of Creative Writing and English at Payne University seems to spend a good part of his day writing letters of recommendation for students and former students for jobs, graduate school or literary residence programs . The letters are scathingly sarcastic and equally hilarious . This book is comprised of these letters .
Students that he taught and students that he doesn't even know ask him to recommend them for child care , IT and catering jobs and a host of other jobs totally unrelated to their English degrees. These are also very telling letters and we learn a bit about Fitger's personal life as well since the director of a literary residence program is one of his exes . His other ex works in admissions at the law school and he sometimes recommends students to these programs. So we get to know a little about his past relationships and also his less than lustrous literary career . He'd come across as a pathetic character if not for his intelligent humor and the impression that deep down he's really a good guy .
Also amusing are the letters he writes for colleagues aspiring to other jobs or being nominated for committee assignments . Not only do we find out what he really thinks of these colleagues , but we get the sense of the low status of the English department in his comments about the poor conditions such the leaky pipes in the men's room , and not filling multiple vacant positions . Then in recommending a colleague for another job , one at a Bible college ,he goes so far as to tell how he slept with her for three years.
I won't go on because I don't want to spoil it any more than I have for anyone who reads this . I would recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining read with some substance beneath the funny lines and I suspect that anyone who is or was part of academia will love this book. It's a short book and a quick read because you will find yourself going to the next letter as soon as you finish the one you've just read.
Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley.
September 6, 2014
An entire novel written in the form of passive-aggressive recommendation letters sounds like the kind of gimmick that would get old really quick - especially with such a whisper-thin plot. But if you have a weakness for witty, self-destructive English professors who can effortlessly reduce someone to the size of a Tic Tac in six words or less, you will probably be thoroughly entertained for at least 80% of it.
April 21, 2024
the back cover describes its interior as "droll" and that's a perfect summation of the book's charms. quite droll. I like droll. this epistolary novel is very, very droll. Prof. Jason Fitzger is a droll creation: incredibly pretentious, long-winded, full of complaints, full of himself, and fortunately of a rather kindly and generous disposition despite all of that. the way he either consciously or - even more drolly - unconsciously sabotages the subjects of his letters of recommendations was an ongoing joy. one can't help but laugh at him while feeling increasingly affectionate towards him, exactly as the author intended. the drollness of it all did take a turn into genuine emotion, genuine tragedy, at the end. I shed some tears, which was very surprising for me and not very droll. fortunately, the tragedy didn't feel cheap, it deepened the story and it deepened the professor as well. good job, book!
August 16, 2014
The novel is a series of letters, recommendations and posts from a Professor of English and Creative writing at Payne University. Form these posts we learn of the Professors frustration at the state of the building where his office is as well as that of this whole program in general. Of the impeding death of creative writing or writing actual books and his impulsive personal life.
Extremely witty, tongue-in-cheek humor, sarcasm and ironic, the author deftly presents her story in an unusual form. Although told in an amusing tone there are many truisms related about the current state of the publishing field, the writing field and a literature degree in general, that makes one think. Also the many jobs well degreed applicants are applying for that are not at all commensurate with their degrees.
Schumacher is an amazing writer and through her so is Professor J.T Fitger, but take my advice, never, ever ask him for a recommendation.
ARC from publisher.
Extremely witty, tongue-in-cheek humor, sarcasm and ironic, the author deftly presents her story in an unusual form. Although told in an amusing tone there are many truisms related about the current state of the publishing field, the writing field and a literature degree in general, that makes one think. Also the many jobs well degreed applicants are applying for that are not at all commensurate with their degrees.
Schumacher is an amazing writer and through her so is Professor J.T Fitger, but take my advice, never, ever ask him for a recommendation.
ARC from publisher.
January 24, 2016
Let me begin my review of this novel about the lovable eccentricities of academia by providing an anecdote about a lovably eccentric academic I once knew. A favorite English professor of mine was constantly in a delightfully manic state of enthusiasm about every scrap of literature ever written, each scrap of which he had personally read. He was so overwhelmed with appreciation for every syllable ever put to paper by humankind and had a keen sense of reverence for the critical role any given subset of those syllables played in the greater literary and cultural context of whatever era or theme we were studying. Moreover, he also believed his excellent reading comprehensiveness was not at all atypical and that his campus compatriots, especially his merry band of English lit grads and undergrads, were all mad geniuses just like him, and with reading habits as deeply and widely entrenched as his. He had trouble accepting that some of us probably had a equal or greater appreciation for, say, a Friends rerun marathon as for even the indisputably mainstream literary works that led us to major in English in the first place.These ersatz cultural consumption habits of ours did not lend themselves to having made time to read the various Romantic and Modern juvenilia, marginalia, and other random utterances that he believed any well-read student would by now have accepted as canonical. Our failures distressed him greatly, and as a result, his constant, mid-tangential-rant invocation to us was, "Wait -- have you guys all read that? You've all read that, right?? If not, you should go out and read that RIGHT AWAY!!!"
And that's how I feel about Julie Shumacher's book: everyone should absolutely go out and read it right away if you have not done so already. And you should especially do so if any aspect of my favorite professor anecdote resonated with you or brought back any bygone, ivory tower, arts-and-letters memories. Because this novel is above all a heavenly, touching, and and hilarious valentine to academia, academics, and those who love or at least appreciate academia and academics. It's also freaking laugh-out-loud funny and yet warmhearted. I laughed, I cried, and I thought, how nice to read a novel that successfully and lovingly satirizes the, let's admit it, wonderfully effed-up world of liberal arts academia, yet WITHOUT making everyone look like a perverted asshat. Or at least without making everyone look like an untalented, unlovable perverted asshat. This is so much harder, and more rarely done, than just being plain mean and snarky.
Here are JUST a few other things Shumacher does in this book that are awesome:
-It's a unique epistolary novel made up entirely of letters of recommendation - what?! - that actually still manages to tell an effective story! I wasn't sure going in that this would be possible; yeah, she does it.
-The Gone Girl trend has brought newfound appreciation of the Unreliable Narrator to the mainstream. Well, for newbies as well as for those who've appreciated the whole unreliable narrator thing long before it was kewl - this novel features unreliable narration on several levels. First, the many letters from/to the protagonist that make up this novel are all rife with subtexts and oozing with undertones, and they never quite mean exactly what they say. Figuring out what truly happened and what's really being communicated is part of the fun. Second, the main character is one of my favorite types of unreliable narrators, and the rarer, non-Gone-Girl kind: the self-perceived undesirable, unredeemable lost cause of a soul who actually has far more redeeming and laudatory qualities than he/she recognizes. In this case, the narrator is a crotchety cantankerous old emotionless hardened irrelevant anachronistic antagonistic misanthropic bastard - except he's not.
-If you need your reading to be timely and relevant: despite the humor of the novel, it does shed light on a number of issues in contemporary academia and higher education, from the expected tenure and financial problems, especially in the liberal arts departments, to the failure of even promising young graduates to be able to find their way in a job market that does not necessarily value the rigors of intellectual life and creative endeavor.
-She's a genius with words. I mean, just some of the best syllables and sentences ever. Super imaginative and clever.
I'm not saying more because it's a short book and goes quickly and you could have gone out and read it already. So please do so, and then tell others to read it as well. It would make a great gift too!
And that's how I feel about Julie Shumacher's book: everyone should absolutely go out and read it right away if you have not done so already. And you should especially do so if any aspect of my favorite professor anecdote resonated with you or brought back any bygone, ivory tower, arts-and-letters memories. Because this novel is above all a heavenly, touching, and and hilarious valentine to academia, academics, and those who love or at least appreciate academia and academics. It's also freaking laugh-out-loud funny and yet warmhearted. I laughed, I cried, and I thought, how nice to read a novel that successfully and lovingly satirizes the, let's admit it, wonderfully effed-up world of liberal arts academia, yet WITHOUT making everyone look like a perverted asshat. Or at least without making everyone look like an untalented, unlovable perverted asshat. This is so much harder, and more rarely done, than just being plain mean and snarky.
Here are JUST a few other things Shumacher does in this book that are awesome:
-It's a unique epistolary novel made up entirely of letters of recommendation - what?! - that actually still manages to tell an effective story! I wasn't sure going in that this would be possible; yeah, she does it.
-The Gone Girl trend has brought newfound appreciation of the Unreliable Narrator to the mainstream. Well, for newbies as well as for those who've appreciated the whole unreliable narrator thing long before it was kewl - this novel features unreliable narration on several levels. First, the many letters from/to the protagonist that make up this novel are all rife with subtexts and oozing with undertones, and they never quite mean exactly what they say. Figuring out what truly happened and what's really being communicated is part of the fun. Second, the main character is one of my favorite types of unreliable narrators, and the rarer, non-Gone-Girl kind: the self-perceived undesirable, unredeemable lost cause of a soul who actually has far more redeeming and laudatory qualities than he/she recognizes. In this case, the narrator is a crotchety cantankerous old emotionless hardened irrelevant anachronistic antagonistic misanthropic bastard - except he's not.
-If you need your reading to be timely and relevant: despite the humor of the novel, it does shed light on a number of issues in contemporary academia and higher education, from the expected tenure and financial problems, especially in the liberal arts departments, to the failure of even promising young graduates to be able to find their way in a job market that does not necessarily value the rigors of intellectual life and creative endeavor.
-She's a genius with words. I mean, just some of the best syllables and sentences ever. Super imaginative and clever.
I'm not saying more because it's a short book and goes quickly and you could have gone out and read it already. So please do so, and then tell others to read it as well. It would make a great gift too!
January 11, 2015
This is a short, enjoyable epistolary novel, composed entirely of letters of recommendation written by a curmudgeonly English professor. You might wonder how anyone could make a story out of that, but Schumacher manages, by dint of the professor’s complete lack of a filter about what belongs in professional letters (personal information and complaints about university bureaucracy appear frequently), and the fact that three frequent recipients of his LORs are also his exes. Nor are the letters limited to recommending students for educational programs or jobs (often wildly unrelated to their degrees) – letters recommending people for mental health treatment, or refusing for the umpteenth time to endorse an unbalanced colleague’s self-nomination to a position of authority, also count.
Occasionally the conceit strains credibility (“Whatever I can do to assist in your – or any other firm’s – hiring of Mr. Napp I will accomplish with resolution and zeal,” Jay Fitger writes of his department’s tech support, in a letter sure to preclude any job offer), but overall Schumacher strikes a good balance between writing believable letters and keeping them entertaining enough to hold readers’ interest. The book is often funny, and made me laugh out loud several times, but I’m on the fence about whether it should be shelved as humor: it’s also more serious and melancholy than I expected, particularly toward the end. Fitger emerges as a champion for his increasingly beleaguered and undervalued department, and for the concept of a liberal arts education, as opposed to a more strictly practical and lucrative route. “The reading and writing of fiction both requires and instills empathy – the insertion of oneself into the life of another,” he writes: a sentiment I fully agree with. Though I would not want to read any of Fitger’s novels, the better-received of which are apparently thinly veiled portrayals of his own love life.
Okay, so the book is a bit gimmicky, but it’s fun to read and has a strong voice, and the concept translates well onto the page. It’s worth the short amount of time you’ll take to read it.
Occasionally the conceit strains credibility (“Whatever I can do to assist in your – or any other firm’s – hiring of Mr. Napp I will accomplish with resolution and zeal,” Jay Fitger writes of his department’s tech support, in a letter sure to preclude any job offer), but overall Schumacher strikes a good balance between writing believable letters and keeping them entertaining enough to hold readers’ interest. The book is often funny, and made me laugh out loud several times, but I’m on the fence about whether it should be shelved as humor: it’s also more serious and melancholy than I expected, particularly toward the end. Fitger emerges as a champion for his increasingly beleaguered and undervalued department, and for the concept of a liberal arts education, as opposed to a more strictly practical and lucrative route. “The reading and writing of fiction both requires and instills empathy – the insertion of oneself into the life of another,” he writes: a sentiment I fully agree with. Though I would not want to read any of Fitger’s novels, the better-received of which are apparently thinly veiled portrayals of his own love life.
Okay, so the book is a bit gimmicky, but it’s fun to read and has a strong voice, and the concept translates well onto the page. It’s worth the short amount of time you’ll take to read it.
December 23, 2014
You know, it has been a while since I've read a supposedly funny book that actually turns out to be funny, but Julie Schumacher's Dear Committee Members was great fun. I even laughed out loud in a few spots, and I don't think it's entirely because I was picturing the book as if it were read by a committee member of mine, who tends to write with the same verbose style as Schumacher's narrator.
Jason Fitger is a weary professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University. He was once a writer with some promise—his sensationalized account of his experiences at a famed literary workshop (known as "the Seminar") caught the eye of the then-director, who championed it to a publisher. But his later books never demonstrated the same type of potential, and now he can't get anything published. And his romantic life is in the same decline—he is divorced, although still hung up on his wife, and he tends to bobble any other relationships he enters into, which would be unfortunate even if they weren't with women who work at the university.
All is not rosy at the university, either. The administration has made draconian cuts to the English department, cutting the graduate program and refusing to fund programs. Department instructors are being forced to work in squalor, dodging debris and inhaling construction fumes, as the Economics department, which resides upstairs, is being given more lavish offices. And to top it off, administration has put a sociologist(!) in charge of the English department. What's a guy to do?
Jay spends his days writing letters of recommendation. (Writing, mind you, not filling in the blasted blanks in electronic forms.) He's championingg one of his students for a fellowship at the Seminar, now being run by a former friend (and lover) of Jay's. Jay thinks this student's novel—an updated version of Bartleby called (of all things) Accountant in a Bordello, but the student can't seem to catch a break, which Jay thinks is because everyone is punishing the student to get back at him for slights both real and imagined. As the student's fortunes become more and more bleak, Jay writes recommendations everywhere to try and find an opportunity—even an RV park.
But those letters aren't the only ones he writes. He recommends current students for work-study and off-campus jobs; he recommends colleagues for fellowships, awards, and other positions both within and outside the university; he recommends former students for employment opportunities and graduate school; and in some cases, he recommends students he barely knows for opportunities he doesn't understand. But don't mistake his letter-writing for endorsements; he isn't afraid to tell the truth about those on whose behalf he's writing, so often the letters are more passive-aggressive than positive.
What makes this book so amusing is Jay's verbose use of language (he is a writer, after all) and his need to correct or castigate those to whom he is writing if he feels it necessary. Here is one excerpt from a letter he is writing to (believe it or not) recommend a colleague for a position at another university:
"Let's consider the facts: Carole is comfortably installed at a research university—dysfunctional, yes; second tier, without question—but we do have a modest reputation here at Payne. Shepardville, on the other hand, is a third-tier private college teetering at the edge of a potato field and is still lightly infused with the tropical flavor of offbeat fundamentalism propagated by its millionaire founder, a white-collar criminal who is currently—correct me if I'm wrong—atoning for multiple financial missteps in the Big House in Texas. You've reinvented yourselves and gone secular, but clearly, in various pockets and odd recesses of the campus, glassy-eyed recidivists and fanatics are still screaming hosannas, denying the basic tenets of science, and using a whetstone to sharpen their teeth."
Jay is more than a pompous blowhard, however. He knows how people feel about him and he doesn't care, but there are those about whom he truly cares about. That's what gives Dear Committee Members its depth, making it more than just a farcical epistolary novel, and adding shade to its humor. I really enjoyed this book, and while a book full of letters chockablock with SAT words might not appeal to everyone, it's great fun and a great read.
See all of my reviews (and other stuff) at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
Jason Fitger is a weary professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University. He was once a writer with some promise—his sensationalized account of his experiences at a famed literary workshop (known as "the Seminar") caught the eye of the then-director, who championed it to a publisher. But his later books never demonstrated the same type of potential, and now he can't get anything published. And his romantic life is in the same decline—he is divorced, although still hung up on his wife, and he tends to bobble any other relationships he enters into, which would be unfortunate even if they weren't with women who work at the university.
All is not rosy at the university, either. The administration has made draconian cuts to the English department, cutting the graduate program and refusing to fund programs. Department instructors are being forced to work in squalor, dodging debris and inhaling construction fumes, as the Economics department, which resides upstairs, is being given more lavish offices. And to top it off, administration has put a sociologist(!) in charge of the English department. What's a guy to do?
Jay spends his days writing letters of recommendation. (Writing, mind you, not filling in the blasted blanks in electronic forms.) He's championingg one of his students for a fellowship at the Seminar, now being run by a former friend (and lover) of Jay's. Jay thinks this student's novel—an updated version of Bartleby called (of all things) Accountant in a Bordello, but the student can't seem to catch a break, which Jay thinks is because everyone is punishing the student to get back at him for slights both real and imagined. As the student's fortunes become more and more bleak, Jay writes recommendations everywhere to try and find an opportunity—even an RV park.
But those letters aren't the only ones he writes. He recommends current students for work-study and off-campus jobs; he recommends colleagues for fellowships, awards, and other positions both within and outside the university; he recommends former students for employment opportunities and graduate school; and in some cases, he recommends students he barely knows for opportunities he doesn't understand. But don't mistake his letter-writing for endorsements; he isn't afraid to tell the truth about those on whose behalf he's writing, so often the letters are more passive-aggressive than positive.
What makes this book so amusing is Jay's verbose use of language (he is a writer, after all) and his need to correct or castigate those to whom he is writing if he feels it necessary. Here is one excerpt from a letter he is writing to (believe it or not) recommend a colleague for a position at another university:
"Let's consider the facts: Carole is comfortably installed at a research university—dysfunctional, yes; second tier, without question—but we do have a modest reputation here at Payne. Shepardville, on the other hand, is a third-tier private college teetering at the edge of a potato field and is still lightly infused with the tropical flavor of offbeat fundamentalism propagated by its millionaire founder, a white-collar criminal who is currently—correct me if I'm wrong—atoning for multiple financial missteps in the Big House in Texas. You've reinvented yourselves and gone secular, but clearly, in various pockets and odd recesses of the campus, glassy-eyed recidivists and fanatics are still screaming hosannas, denying the basic tenets of science, and using a whetstone to sharpen their teeth."
Jay is more than a pompous blowhard, however. He knows how people feel about him and he doesn't care, but there are those about whom he truly cares about. That's what gives Dear Committee Members its depth, making it more than just a farcical epistolary novel, and adding shade to its humor. I really enjoyed this book, and while a book full of letters chockablock with SAT words might not appeal to everyone, it's great fun and a great read.
See all of my reviews (and other stuff) at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
September 5, 2016
HILARIOUS AND GENTLE PARODY OF ACADEME
Thanks to Esil for reviewing this very funny sendup of academic life. Otherwise I’d never have found this hidden gem.
The book is a fictional collection of “LOR”s (letters of recommendation) penned by one Jason “Jay” Fitger, a frustrated and aging Professor of Creative Writing at the aptly named Payne University. Fitger seems to spend most of his time writing these letters to universities, companies, literary agents, etc. to help various students and faculty procure jobs, grants, artistic residencies, favors, etc. Sometimes the so-called recommendations are really condemnations. In humorous and imaginative prose, Fitger uses these letters as platforms for his often wildly inappropriate and sometimes bombastic rants, opinions, and complaints about being an aging professor in a dying and underfunded department, the never ending construction in his building, the two women who’ve spurned him, his own failures as a writer, his colleagues, and various other subjects. He sometimes hurls insults both at those he’s recommending and at those to whom the letters are addressed, although he seems frustrated and hilariously undiplomatic but not malicious. At other times, though, he is generous in his praise. He tries to champion his last remaining graduate student, who’s writing a novel titled “Accountant in a Bordello”, a reimagining of Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”. The book ends on a poignant note . However, things do improve for Fitger..I won’t spoil the party by saying how.
Robertson Dean does a great job reading the audio.
Here are a couple of excerpts:
“September 22, 2009 Payne University Law School Admissions c/ o Janet Matthias (aka Janet Matthias-Fitger) 17 Pitlinger Hall Dear Admissions Committee Members—and Janet: This letter recommends Melanie deRueda for admission to the law school on the well-heeled side of this campus. I’ve known Ms. deRueda for eleven minutes, ten of which were spent in a fruitless attempt to explain to her that I write letters of recommendation only for students who have signed up for and completed one of my classes. This young woman is certainly tenacious, if that’s what you’re looking for. A transfer student, she appears to be suffering under the delusion that a recommendation from any random faculty member within our august institution will be the key to her application’s success. Janet: I know your committees aren’t reading these blasted LORs—under the influence of our final martini in August you told me as much. (I wish I had an ex-wife like you in every department; over in the Fellowship Office, the formerly benevolent Carole continues to maintain an icy distance. I should think her decision to quit our relationship would have filled her with a cheerful burst of self-esteem, but she apparently views the end of our three years together in a different light.)”
“September 9, 2009 Mary Alice Ingersol, Manager Wexler Foods, Inc. 65409 Capitol Drive Maplewood, MN 55109 Dear Ms. Ingersol, This letter is intended to bolster the application to Wexler Foods of my former student John Leszczynski, who completed the Junior/ Senior Creative Writing Workshop three months ago. Mr. Leszczynski received a final grade of B, primarily on the basis of an eleven-page short story about an inebriated man who tumbles into a cave and surfaces from an alcoholic stupor to find that a tentacled monster—a sort of fanged and copiously salivating octopus, if memory serves—is gnawing through the flesh of his lower legs, the monster’s spittle burbling ever closer to the victim’s groin. Though chaotic and improbable even within the fantasy/ horror genre, the story was solidly constructed: dialogue consisted primarily of agonized groans and screaming; the chronology was relentlessly clear. Mr. Leszczynski attended class faithfully, arriving on time, and rarely succumbed to the undergraduate impulse to check his cell phone for messages or relentlessly zip and unzip his backpack in the final minutes of class. Whether punctuality and an enthusiasm for flesh-eating cephalopods are the main attributes of the ideal Wexler employee September 9, 2009 Mary Alice Ingersol, Manager Wexler Foods, Inc. 65409 Capitol Drive Maplewood, MN 55109 Dear Ms. Ingersol, This letter is intended to bolster the application to Wexler Foods of my former student John Leszczynski, who completed the Junior/ Senior Creative Writing Workshop three months ago. Mr. Leszczynski received a final grade of B, primarily on the basis of an eleven-page short story about an inebriated man who tumbles into a cave and surfaces from an alcoholic stupor to find that a tentacled monster—a sort of fanged and copiously salivating octopus, if memory serves—is gnawing through the flesh of his lower legs, the monster’s spittle burbling ever closer to the victim’s groin. Though chaotic and improbable even within the fantasy/ horror genre, the story was solidly constructed: dialogue consisted primarily of agonized groans and screaming; the chronology was relentlessly clear. Mr. Leszczynski attended class faithfully, arriving on time, and rarely succumbed to the undergraduate impulse to check his cell phone for messages or relentlessly zip and unzip his backpack in the final minutes of class. Whether punctuality and an enthusiasm for flesh-eating cephalopods are the main attributes of the ideal Wexler employee I have no idea, but Mr. Leszczynski is an affable young man, reliable in his habits, and reasonably bright. You might start him off in produce, rather than seafood or meats. Whimsically, Jason T. Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing/ English Payne University”
Thanks to Esil for reviewing this very funny sendup of academic life. Otherwise I’d never have found this hidden gem.
The book is a fictional collection of “LOR”s (letters of recommendation) penned by one Jason “Jay” Fitger, a frustrated and aging Professor of Creative Writing at the aptly named Payne University. Fitger seems to spend most of his time writing these letters to universities, companies, literary agents, etc. to help various students and faculty procure jobs, grants, artistic residencies, favors, etc. Sometimes the so-called recommendations are really condemnations. In humorous and imaginative prose, Fitger uses these letters as platforms for his often wildly inappropriate and sometimes bombastic rants, opinions, and complaints about being an aging professor in a dying and underfunded department, the never ending construction in his building, the two women who’ve spurned him, his own failures as a writer, his colleagues, and various other subjects. He sometimes hurls insults both at those he’s recommending and at those to whom the letters are addressed, although he seems frustrated and hilariously undiplomatic but not malicious. At other times, though, he is generous in his praise. He tries to champion his last remaining graduate student, who’s writing a novel titled “Accountant in a Bordello”, a reimagining of Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”. The book ends on a poignant note . However, things do improve for Fitger..I won’t spoil the party by saying how.
Robertson Dean does a great job reading the audio.
Here are a couple of excerpts:
“September 22, 2009 Payne University Law School Admissions c/ o Janet Matthias (aka Janet Matthias-Fitger) 17 Pitlinger Hall Dear Admissions Committee Members—and Janet: This letter recommends Melanie deRueda for admission to the law school on the well-heeled side of this campus. I’ve known Ms. deRueda for eleven minutes, ten of which were spent in a fruitless attempt to explain to her that I write letters of recommendation only for students who have signed up for and completed one of my classes. This young woman is certainly tenacious, if that’s what you’re looking for. A transfer student, she appears to be suffering under the delusion that a recommendation from any random faculty member within our august institution will be the key to her application’s success. Janet: I know your committees aren’t reading these blasted LORs—under the influence of our final martini in August you told me as much. (I wish I had an ex-wife like you in every department; over in the Fellowship Office, the formerly benevolent Carole continues to maintain an icy distance. I should think her decision to quit our relationship would have filled her with a cheerful burst of self-esteem, but she apparently views the end of our three years together in a different light.)”
“September 9, 2009 Mary Alice Ingersol, Manager Wexler Foods, Inc. 65409 Capitol Drive Maplewood, MN 55109 Dear Ms. Ingersol, This letter is intended to bolster the application to Wexler Foods of my former student John Leszczynski, who completed the Junior/ Senior Creative Writing Workshop three months ago. Mr. Leszczynski received a final grade of B, primarily on the basis of an eleven-page short story about an inebriated man who tumbles into a cave and surfaces from an alcoholic stupor to find that a tentacled monster—a sort of fanged and copiously salivating octopus, if memory serves—is gnawing through the flesh of his lower legs, the monster’s spittle burbling ever closer to the victim’s groin. Though chaotic and improbable even within the fantasy/ horror genre, the story was solidly constructed: dialogue consisted primarily of agonized groans and screaming; the chronology was relentlessly clear. Mr. Leszczynski attended class faithfully, arriving on time, and rarely succumbed to the undergraduate impulse to check his cell phone for messages or relentlessly zip and unzip his backpack in the final minutes of class. Whether punctuality and an enthusiasm for flesh-eating cephalopods are the main attributes of the ideal Wexler employee September 9, 2009 Mary Alice Ingersol, Manager Wexler Foods, Inc. 65409 Capitol Drive Maplewood, MN 55109 Dear Ms. Ingersol, This letter is intended to bolster the application to Wexler Foods of my former student John Leszczynski, who completed the Junior/ Senior Creative Writing Workshop three months ago. Mr. Leszczynski received a final grade of B, primarily on the basis of an eleven-page short story about an inebriated man who tumbles into a cave and surfaces from an alcoholic stupor to find that a tentacled monster—a sort of fanged and copiously salivating octopus, if memory serves—is gnawing through the flesh of his lower legs, the monster’s spittle burbling ever closer to the victim’s groin. Though chaotic and improbable even within the fantasy/ horror genre, the story was solidly constructed: dialogue consisted primarily of agonized groans and screaming; the chronology was relentlessly clear. Mr. Leszczynski attended class faithfully, arriving on time, and rarely succumbed to the undergraduate impulse to check his cell phone for messages or relentlessly zip and unzip his backpack in the final minutes of class. Whether punctuality and an enthusiasm for flesh-eating cephalopods are the main attributes of the ideal Wexler employee I have no idea, but Mr. Leszczynski is an affable young man, reliable in his habits, and reasonably bright. You might start him off in produce, rather than seafood or meats. Whimsically, Jason T. Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing/ English Payne University”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 17, 2023
One thing I know for sure after reading this short, funny, sassy novel, Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher is….
I would never want Jason T. Fitzer, Professor of Creative Writing and English at Payne University to ever write me a letter of recommendation! This novel mocks the practice of writing recommendation letters while also spinning a fine tale.
Jason T. Fitger is a professor of creative writing and English at Payne University, a second-rate school in a backwater state where his department is accorded about as much esteem as the school's janitorial services. He is divorced and unloved, lustful and ineffectual. His first novel, a steamy roman à clef about the legendary writing seminar he attended two decades ago, won acclaim; the ones that followed did not. His office is next to the bathroom, a setting he grimly calls “bucolic.” He has tenure, and almost nothing else. Well, that is not entirely true. Fitger has plenty of people who want a letter of recommendation from him and that is how this story is told.
So...
NPR’s Maureen Corrigan summed it up beautifully when she shared in her review...
“This book of letters is composed of a year's worth of recommendations that our anti-hero — a weary professor of creative writing and literature — is called upon to write for junior colleagues, lackluster students and even former lovers. The gem of a law school recommendation letter our beleaguered professor writes for a cutthroat undergrad who he's known for all of "eleven minutes," is alone worth the price of Schumacher's book.”
How can you not love this guy?! Need a good laugh…. check this book out!
(P.S. – check out the book cover….what do you see – and what do you think it represents?)
I would never want Jason T. Fitzer, Professor of Creative Writing and English at Payne University to ever write me a letter of recommendation! This novel mocks the practice of writing recommendation letters while also spinning a fine tale.
Jason T. Fitger is a professor of creative writing and English at Payne University, a second-rate school in a backwater state where his department is accorded about as much esteem as the school's janitorial services. He is divorced and unloved, lustful and ineffectual. His first novel, a steamy roman à clef about the legendary writing seminar he attended two decades ago, won acclaim; the ones that followed did not. His office is next to the bathroom, a setting he grimly calls “bucolic.” He has tenure, and almost nothing else. Well, that is not entirely true. Fitger has plenty of people who want a letter of recommendation from him and that is how this story is told.
So...
NPR’s Maureen Corrigan summed it up beautifully when she shared in her review...
“This book of letters is composed of a year's worth of recommendations that our anti-hero — a weary professor of creative writing and literature — is called upon to write for junior colleagues, lackluster students and even former lovers. The gem of a law school recommendation letter our beleaguered professor writes for a cutthroat undergrad who he's known for all of "eleven minutes," is alone worth the price of Schumacher's book.”
How can you not love this guy?! Need a good laugh…. check this book out!
(P.S. – check out the book cover….what do you see – and what do you think it represents?)
June 3, 2022
Jason Fitger is a middle-aged professor of English and creative writing at Payne University, a middling liberal arts college somewhere in the American Midwest. That was a lot of “mids” for one sentence. Rest assured, though: there is nothing average about Schumacher’s second novel. Told entirely through the irascible Fitger’s letters of recommendation for his colleagues and students, it is a delightful epistolary. Fitger’s barbed comments and garrulousness will keep you laughing. Schumacher herself teaches English and creative writing for the University of Minnesota, which accounts for the sly, knowing look at academia.
Also recommended:
The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick (another funny one)
Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer (a bit more serious)
Also recommended:
The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick (another funny one)
Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer (a bit more serious)
August 31, 2023
This is a fun, quick read composed entirely of letters written by a disgruntled professor of English named Jason Fitger. He's unhappy with the state of his department, his office, his publishing agent, his love life and more--and all this seems to find its way into the letters of recommendation he is asked to write for former students. I'm sure none of them were offered jobs based on the things he reveals! Quite hilarious! I look forward to reading the next book in this trilogy.
June 29, 2024
Jason Fitger is a professor of creative writing and literature at the second-rate Payne University. "Dear Committee Members" is composed entirely of his letters--correspondence with the deans, letters of recommendation for his students, attempts to find funding for a student writing a promising novel, complaints about a construction project dumping toxic debris into his office, and letters to his ex-wives. The letters are humorous and satirical, and give us a good idea of the ups and downs of Professor Fitger's life. Many of the problems in academia are related to funding, and Payne University is no exception. I enjoyed the clever mix of humor and criticism from the grumpy professor who also has a soft spot for his gifted students and struggling colleagues.
December 27, 2015
Hilarious! The novel comprises the recommendation letters (for worthy or less-than-worthy students) of one weary professor of creative writing and English at Payne University—pun intended. Professor Jason Fitger is twice divorced and sometimes has to direct his letters to his ex-wives or ex-lover. Not only is the novel funny, but it is moving. Fitger becomes more and more real; you can feel not only his disgust at his department (which he compares to the Titanic), at himself and his hopeless situation, but his aching concern for two people (a student and a colleague) for whom he is desperately seeking help. In the end, you fall in love with him. At least I did.
I have never worked in academia, but I suspect if you do, you will enjoy this epistolary novel even more than I did. I envy you—not the job, but the laughs. For a good time and a moving experience, hang out on the other end of Prof. Fitger’s subversive missives. This is a book for everyone who is in love with literature and those who make it their lives’ work.
Many thanks to Jan Priddy whose review, seconded by other Goodreaders, got me to read this book.
I have never worked in academia, but I suspect if you do, you will enjoy this epistolary novel even more than I did. I envy you—not the job, but the laughs. For a good time and a moving experience, hang out on the other end of Prof. Fitger’s subversive missives. This is a book for everyone who is in love with literature and those who make it their lives’ work.
Many thanks to Jan Priddy whose review, seconded by other Goodreaders, got me to read this book.
Read
August 13, 2017This book is a cruel trick and made me cry. Academia is cruel. Writing is cruel. Mediocrity crueler still. Suicide the cruelest of all.
This was recommended to me by someone else in academia. This person described it as "incredibly funny," which it was right up until it also turned out to be about an MFA graduate student who commits suicide because he's poor and he's worried that his work is mediocre. Perhaps this seemed funnier to the person who recommended it, because he has never been a poor, suicidal MFA student who fears a life of poverty and mediocrity, or because he has never known a poor MFA student who committed suicide. As someone who has been that MFA student and known that MFA student, I did not finish the book laughing.
This was recommended to me by someone else in academia. This person described it as "incredibly funny," which it was right up until it also turned out to be about an MFA graduate student who commits suicide because he's poor and he's worried that his work is mediocre. Perhaps this seemed funnier to the person who recommended it, because he has never been a poor, suicidal MFA student who fears a life of poverty and mediocrity, or because he has never known a poor MFA student who committed suicide. As someone who has been that MFA student and known that MFA student, I did not finish the book laughing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2014
I spent about an hour with this book and that was WAY more time than it deserved. And here I'd heard such good things about it. And me and academic, too. Oh well. (I won't put it in the category "didn't finish" because I did leaf through the whole thing.)
The book is made up of a series of letters from our hero (?) to a variety of recipients. He's a professor of English. He's recommending people for various jobs, fellowships, etc. The first one/two letters are rather entertaining, but I don't see how this could sustain interest. Ugh.
I will spend no more time on it.
The book is made up of a series of letters from our hero (?) to a variety of recipients. He's a professor of English. He's recommending people for various jobs, fellowships, etc. The first one/two letters are rather entertaining, but I don't see how this could sustain interest. Ugh.
I will spend no more time on it.
September 2, 2021
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!)
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!)
November 7, 2014
I will never look at a LOR(Letter of Recommendation) the same way again. Julie Schumacher’s novel “Dear Committee Members” is written as a series of LOR’s and academic emails. It’s hilarious. These LOR’s and other pieces of mail tell the story of Jason Fitger, a creative writing and literature Professor at a third-tiered school in the Midwest. What makes these LOR’s so entertaining is that Schumacher writes from the sarcastic heart of hers. It’s acerbic, cynical and witty. I’m sure some of these letters are ones she wished she could have written…..or ones she wrote in her head before she poured on the BS. Really, why are LOR’s so important? It’s common knowledge that the letters are full of (sometimes unearned) wordy exultation.
This is a quick and fun read. It’s hilarious and well written. It’s a great “Book of letters”.
This is a quick and fun read. It’s hilarious and well written. It’s a great “Book of letters”.
August 23, 2014
This is a short, epistolary novel, consisting of a range of letters and emails sent from Jason (Jay) Figer, a Professor of Creative Writing and English at Payne University. Figer, we soon learn, is beleaguered in a building and a department which is less than perfect. The upper floors are being redesigned for the Economics department, while the English department suffers a lack of funding, dust from the building works, leaky windows and general dissatisfaction with their lot. More than once, Figer refers to the remaining staff, who have not fled Willard Hall, surrounded as it is by noise and fumes, as castaways. It also gradually becomes apparent that he is divorced – many of his messages are written to both his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend – and that after a successful debut novel, his own writing career has stalled. Furthermore, he is grumpy, dislikes modern forms of communication – his rage at online forms is often hilarious – and seems to have fallen out with many of his colleagues, to the point where some are not even on speaking terms.
Yet, despite all these problems, or perhaps because of them, this is a funny and somehow heart warming journey. Figer is forced to write endless letters of recommendation; many of which digress into all too honest complaints about the company or person he is writing to. He spends much of the book attempting to find funding for a writing student, whose work he obviously believes in passionately, and he often bemoans his students who plagiarise (one young woman choosing what she felt was a suitably obscure author, called Virginia Woolf...) or who write endlessly about mutants or flesh eating cannibals. However, he is a passionate believer in the written word. He prefers letters to email (understandably, after a mistake which resulted in a very personal message being sent incorrectly), is, despite his bluster, a kind man who cares for the welfare of his students and friends, and who is a lover of literature above all else. If you work in an academic setting, this will have great appeal; but whether you do or not, this is a strangely charming and often very funny read. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.
Yet, despite all these problems, or perhaps because of them, this is a funny and somehow heart warming journey. Figer is forced to write endless letters of recommendation; many of which digress into all too honest complaints about the company or person he is writing to. He spends much of the book attempting to find funding for a writing student, whose work he obviously believes in passionately, and he often bemoans his students who plagiarise (one young woman choosing what she felt was a suitably obscure author, called Virginia Woolf...) or who write endlessly about mutants or flesh eating cannibals. However, he is a passionate believer in the written word. He prefers letters to email (understandably, after a mistake which resulted in a very personal message being sent incorrectly), is, despite his bluster, a kind man who cares for the welfare of his students and friends, and who is a lover of literature above all else. If you work in an academic setting, this will have great appeal; but whether you do or not, this is a strangely charming and often very funny read. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.
July 25, 2015
Recommended to me by a member of my university's English department, it would be hard not to find some similarities between the department woefully underfunded and unsupported in this novel and at any liberal arts institution in the United States. Or maybe any academic institution, but the detail of having a department chair from outside the department? Let's just say that felt awfully familiar. Told completely in an epistolary form by a fed-up tenured member of the department, most letters are more specifically letters of recommendation, which is how the professor spends most of his time, rather than writing for publication or doing research.
A quick read, and a great ending. After all,
A quick read, and a great ending. After all,
June 22, 2016
3.5 stars.
I may have found this funnier than the average reader - I grew up around English departments, which are strange places.
I may have found this funnier than the average reader - I grew up around English departments, which are strange places.
July 9, 2022
A short novel told (almost) entirely through a disgruntled English professor’s snarky letters of recommendation. Need I say more.
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