You’ve probably come across one of these if you read a lot of fiction. They’re epistolary novels. The ten-dollar word refers to the letters that tell the story. Scholars seem to believe that the first example of this now-obscure genre was Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, which appeared in 1684. And practically nobody would recognize the author’s name today. But readers of “serious” fiction are far more likely to recognize the name Julie Schumacher. the author of a new epistolary novel. She’s been winning literary prizes for practically everything she’s written since her first published short story forty years ago. And her epistolary novel, Dear Committee Members, appeared in 2014, the year before she won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. That can’t be a coincidence, since Dear Committee Members is a satirical campus novel that’s laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
A long-suffering professor in a shrinking English department
Jay Fitger—Jason T. Fitger, more properly—is a grumpy Professor of Creative Writing and English at a “third-rate” institution of what passes for higher learning named Payne University. His literary career has long since stalled. It consists of one highly praised novel and several others that nobody seems to have read. And Payne is a fitting destination for such a man on the downslope of his career. Like other places that teach liberal arts, funds, and students, are shifting from courses in the humanities to the STEM disciplines. And Jay has a front-row seat on the carnage in the English Department.
If he actually teaches classes, it’s not readily evident. He seems to spend the bulk of his time writing letters of recommendation (“LORs”). Some are for students seeking internships or places in graduate programs. Others involve campus politics, particularly to and about the sociologist who now chairs the English Department. (Nobody else is left on the English faculty who’s willing and able to do the job.) And several of these letters go to Jay’s ex-wives and ex-girlfriends, who seem to occupy influential positions at Payne and other places where Jay’s students want to go.
Dear Committee Members (Dear Committee Trilogy #1) by Julie Schumacher (2014) 192 pages ★★★★☆
This satirical campus novel is right on target
Jay is particularly concerned about getting a berth at a literary residency for Darren Browles, one of his graduate students. Browles has begun writing a novel that Jay thinks is beyond brilliant. (Nobody else agrees, including Browles.) The young man’s novel-in-progress is “a retelling of Melville’s ‘Bartleby’ (but in which the eponymous character is hired to keep the books at a brothel, circa 1960, just outside Las Vegas).
Here is Jay Fitger in an all-too typical letter of recommendation: “You’ve asked me to write a letter seconding the nomination of Franklin Kentrell for Payne’s coveted Davidson Chair. I assume Kentrell is behind this request; no sane person would nominate a man whose only recent publications consist of personal genealogical material and who wears visible sock garters in class—all he lacks is a white tin basin to resemble a nineteenth-century barber.”
And here’s Jay again: “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.”
About the author
Julie Schumacher (1958-) has been winning literary awards for her writing ever since the publication of her first short story as an undergraduate at Oberlin College. She later received an MFA from Cornell University while continuing to write for publication. She lives in St. Paul, where she is a Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota. Schumacher teaches in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English. She has also won many teaching awards. And if she is as funny in person as she is on the page, I can well understand why. Her husband is the Director of the Center for the Study of Politics at the University of Minnesota.
For related reading
You’ll find other funny books at My 10 favorite funny novels. And if you prefer less deliberately funny books, see Top 10 great popular novels or 25 most enlightening historical novels.
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