There is something about rarefied atmospheres that appeal to me. It's what I love about books set in convents and boarding schools, and occasionally I find myself drawn to a book set in the Ivory Tower. I enjoyed Allegra Goodman's Intuition (though I agree with Kris's criticism that the science is not good science); I was very bothered by Francine Prose's Blue Angel.

When I read a blurb for Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher, two things caught my eye: epistolary novel, and "droll and inventive." A comic novel is hit or miss, and a comic novel that sounds like it might have an axe to grind--a beleaguered academic writing reluctant letters of reference promises to be thinly veiled whining from someone in a similar position--sounds just awful. But...but. I don't know what the "but" is--"but" I requested it from NetGalley anyway,

I needn't have worried--it is NOT about whining. I mean, the character whines a lot, but he's genuinely hilarious. I did get annoyed with him when he went off-topic--I completely understood why so many people couldn't stand him--but I also found it kind of charming when he wrote way-too-honest letters:

"This letter recommends Melanie deRueda for admission to the law school on the well-heeled side of 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."

This would get old, but it's just the framework and the vehicle for telling the story--the story of his life, and the story of this school year. He writes to his department head and the dean, complaining about cuts to the English and Creative Writing departments. He writes to his exes and old classmates, who work at other institutions, in other parts of his university, or in business. He recommends students and tries to find a position for his protege. He soothes exes, complains about the state of academia, and worries about old friends.

And over the course of this, we get a clearer picture of him--his early literary success, his conflicts with his exes, his reputation as a crank in the department. It's not just a character sketch, though--you can watch the relationships work out in this one sided correspondence.

I also learned more words in this book than I ever have. My Kindle is earning its props for instant definitions; I've highlighted mephitic, senescence, strabismic, ding an sich, and yclempt, and that's just in the last quarter of the book when I started highlighting.

If this review does not adequately convey that I found the book amusing, whimsical, and touching, then it's because I'm still kind of jet lagged. Sometimes it's the books you really like that you have a hard time explaining.

(Received a free copy from NetGalley for an honest review.)

This book was a surprise and a delight! Smart and funny. I stayed up half the night, reading until I'd finished.

The intelligent, dedicated, and increasingly beleaguered and disillusioned writing professor at a small Midwest University rife with complicated personal relationships and departmental politics, is continually put upon to write letter after ridiculous letter of recommendation for students, friends, colleagues, and occasionally even enemies and bosses. He usually tries--he really does--to do his best, but after years of false starts, wrong turns, and fading dreams, his letters more often than not dissolve into tirades against the system, and even against those almost-complete-strangers with the temerity to demand that he write on their behalf. The letters sometimes start with praise, or at least innocuously, but soon his honesty, his acerbic wit, and sometimes his downright sarcastic, exhausted, befuddlement at yet another incomprehensible injustice, emerge.

I recommend this book--especially for anyone with a love of writing; or personal experience in the alternate reality of academia (especially creative writing, or other less 'in' departments); or who just enjoys an intelligent, witty, erudite look at life, relationships, and our willingness to put up with increasingly incomprehensible circumstances.

This amusing epistolary novel is for anyone who has ever accepted an "interesting" or prestigious position only to discover that most days they were trapped in a mire of bureaucratic minutia. I laughed and smirked at every letter of recommendation included in this slender volume of one-sided correspondence.

I was a product of an English Department at a public university, and also served as a publicist and development officer for universities and non-profit organizations.

I totally identified with the environment in Ms. Schumacher's book. My first job as a graduate assistant was to write a (file) obituary for EVERY faculty member in an institution that had 40,000 students. How many faculty members would that have been? So, I fully understand the ennui and drive for diversion that motivated the writer in Dear Committee Members.

Personally, I would have appreciated the book even more if the levity was tempered in some way. Although each letter was individual, there was a predictability to the over-the-top frankness of the Letters of Recommendation; this running joke got a bit stale. But, nothing really spoiled my enjoyment of this snarky look at a struggling Liberal Arts department in a second tier university.

Netgalley provided me with a review copy of this book and I was grateful for the opportunity to read it.

/19288259-dear-committee-members" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">Dear Committee Members: A novel by Julie Schumacher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This amusing epistolary novel is for anyone who has ever accepted an "interesting" or prestigious position only to discover that most days they were trapped in a mire of bureaucratic minutia. I laughed and smirked at every letter of recommendation included in this slender volume of one-sided correspondence.

I was a product of an English Department at a public university, and also served as a publicist and development officer for universities and non-profit organizations.

I totally identified with the environment in Ms. Schumacher's book. My first job as a graduate assistant was to write a (file) obituary for EVERY faculty member in an institution that had 40,000 students. How many faculty members would that have been? So, I fully understand the ennui and drive for diversion that motivated the writer in Dear Committee Members.

Personally, I would have appreciated the book even more if the levity was tempered in some way. Although each letter was individual, there was a predictability to the over-the-top frankness of the Letters of Recommendation; this running joke got a bit stale. But, nothing really spoiled my enjoyment of this snarky look at a struggling Liberal Arts department in a second tier university.

Netgalley provided me with a review copy of this book and I was grateful for the opportunity to read it.

View all my reviews