Dear Committee Members is a fast and fun read, and for all of its novelty, it’s also surprisingly revealing, a fascinating look at the humdrum existence of life in the ivory tower. Dear Committee Members
By Julie Schumacher
192 pages
Paperback; $14.95
Anchor; Reprint edition (June 23, 2015)
English
ISBN-10: 0345807332
ISBN-13: 978-0345807335
Jay Fitger is a failed novelist and creative writing instructor at fictional (and aptly-named) Payne University whose time—when not in the classroom—is largely occupied with composing missives thinly disguised as letters of recommendation in Julie Schumacher’s 2014 epistolary novel, Dear Committee Members.
The novel is told through a succession of correspondence that each begin as a letter of recommendation on behalf of a student (for which Fitger cannot conceal his disdain), but often descend into a rant bemoaning Payne’s continual defunding of the English Department, the deteriorating conditions in which Fitger and his colleagues in the Humanities Department endure during what seems like an unending construction project, and the curmudgeonly Fitger’s mounting frustration at his inability to place economically-challenged writing student, Darren Browles, with a work study job. To complicate matters, Fitger must contend with both a vindictive ex-wife and a former lover—both still active in Payne campus politics.
Schumacher, herself a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English at the University of Minnesota, writes with a confidence that convinces the reader she has composed many a letter of recommendation in her day, and she seems to be acting out her darkest fantasies on the page.
Fitger, a disenchanted and jaded educator and writer with his best days behind him, is an interesting and fully-fleshed out character—a narcissist who turns every letter of recommendation into a personal essay about himself—but he exhibits an almost-endearing dedication to finding his protégé Browles gainful employment. Ultimately, it is his loyalty to Browles that serves as Fitger’s redemption and makes for a satisfying ending.
For all of Fitger’s crass and back-handed compliments, Schumacher provides Fitger with moments of introspection that permits the character opportunities to stand upon his soapbox and wax poetically about the benefits and rewards of a life dedicated to letters. For all of its fun and witticisms, it is in these moments that Schumacher’s novel really shines.
Dear Committee Members is a fast and fun read, and for all of its novelty, it’s also surprisingly revealing, a fascinating look at the humdrum existence of life in the ivory tower.
