Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
| Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Susmita Chatto
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| Summary: A laughter-laden epistolary novel exploring the life of an undervalued academic. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 180 | Date: October 2014 |
| Publisher: The Friday Project | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9780007586349 | |
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Jason Fitger (Jay) is a Professor of creative writing and literature at a small university in the American mid-west. He is also a frustrated novelist with a colourful personal history, much of which bleeds into his professional life, with interesting results.
His story is depicted through a series of letters, many intended as Letters of Recommendation, but managing to stray very far off-topic to tell Jay’s story.
At this point I should add, I currently work for a university (happily nothing like the one in the novel); but that is not necessary to enjoy this book. If you have ever worked with committees, office hierarchies or frustrating IT systems, or indeed just worked, this book will make you weep with laughter as well as recognition of the scenarios within.
Let’s face it, workplace issues are universal, often depressingly so. The problems of restructuring, restricted funding and the politics attached when one department takes priority over another, are all features in this book. Schumacher writes so pithily, the trivialities that frustrate Jay on a daily basis are made into episodes well worth the time and words for the laughs they raise.
I particularly enjoyed reading about Darren Browles, Jay’s favoured student whose novel Accountant in a Bordello is apparently a shattering reinterpretation of Melville’s Bartleby – though I daresay, with that title, it doesn't need to be – surely it has sold itself right away?. (One hopes Ms Schumacher is working on making this a reality too).
Jay’s own take on creative writing is alternately impudent and moving. He envies poets, saying Ah, the strenuous life of the poet: he snips a few adjectives from the daily paper, tapes them in a spiral to his office door, and calls the work week done. But buried in a letter of reference he says the reading and writing of fiction both requires and instils empathy – the insertion of oneself into the life of another. Burying oneself in the life of the academic is a real pleasure here; the writing flows and the story, does convey the stories of many others, albeit through Jay’s lens.
Part of Jay’s frustration lies in the students’ appreciation, or lack thereof, of English literature. His experiences with students who not only plagiarise popular works but appear shocked when a tutor recognises it as such, made me wonder if Schumacher had changed some names to protect the guilty...
It is also a miracle that Jay can see still see the joy of creative writing, as he describes the work he reads daily by saying: …I am thoroughly accustomed to students’ depictions of haunted mine shafts, exsanguinations in graveyards, self-mutilation via power tool, sex between gargoyle and human… and this comment arises because a student has managed to surprise him. You will have to read the novel to find out more!
Overall, this novel is smooth and well structured, resonating with truth and laughter. It also manages to be uplifting. I’m not usually a fan of workplace novels because sometimes the truth is too unpalatable, no matter what it is mixed with. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this one; witty, carefully observed and packed with hilarity, I am confident even the most seasoned teacher of creative writing would be delighted to read it.
If this book appeals then we think you might also enjoy Three Stories by Alan Bennett.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher at Amazon.com.
