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  • Dear Committee Members

  • A Novel
  • Written by: Julie Schumacher
  • Narrated by: Robertson Dean
  • Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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Dear Committee Members

Written by: Julie Schumacher
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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Publisher's Summary

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 audiobook 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.
©2014 Julie Schumacher (P)2014 Random House Audio
Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction
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What the critics say

"[A] very funny epistolary novel composed of recommendation letters... It's an unusual form for comedy, but it works. Truth is stranger than fiction in this acid satire of the academic doldrums." ( Kirkus)
"Schumacher's warm satire of the peculiarities of the Ivory Tower will be recognizable to anyone who has encountered the bureaucracy and internal politics of higher education." ( Booklist)
" Dear Committee Members is a brilliant book that, in my head, sits comfortably on my prized shelf of academic novels, right between Lucky Jim and Pictures from an Institution. But it's funnier than either, and more wrenching in the end. The conceit of a novel told in letters of reference is inspired, and it is killingly funny because it's all so killingly true. Truth walks here in the strangest of costumes, and in part because of its guises, we can face it, frown, laugh, cry. I've never lost an afternoon so happily." (Jay Parini, author of The Last Station and The Passages of H.M.)

What listeners say about Dear Committee Members

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Profile Image for Ally H

Was not a fan of the narration style of this book

I did not like 'reference letter' style of story telling in this book. I found it hard to follow and just generally uninteresting. Where is the real story here? Why do I care? The main character is supposed to be a jerk, I get that, but it just got old after a while. As an academic I appreciated some of the jokes, but beyond that, it was boring. There is an attempt at a narrative within the reference letters, but who actually talks like that in emails/reference letters? It felt unrealistic and took me out of the story.

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