Every now and then, I wish I hadn't pursued my present career and instead become a college English professor. Dear Committee Members reassured me that I'm in the right profession! Very funny, biting satire about life in the trenches in a time when English studies are not regarded as useful or desireable.

But this book is more than that. We also have an English professor narrator (of sorts -- this is an epistolary novel, told in the professor's letters, mostly letters of recommendation but also to his colleagues) who is alone and lonely, regretting the infidelity that broke up his marriage, regretting his own inability to sell a new novel, regretting the changes in the world that have landed him in a second (at least) tier university in a decomposing building spending most of his time writing letters of recommendation for everything from admission to a writing retreat to a job as a data entry clerk.

The novel is mostly funny, but toward the end takes a poignant turn, and then, right at the end, turns unironically sad -- and also gives us a new view of our narrator. It's very nicely done.

Recommended for anyone who loved college!

Jason Fitger is a tenured English professor at Payne University. As such, he says what he thinks and doesn't care if the rest of the college likes him or not. Fitger is teaching creative writing as the English department and other liberal arts departments are seeing budgets and positions cut. Adjunct professors make up over half the faculty in his department while departments with wealthy graduates such as Business and Economics are given tons of money for research and travel and sumptuous surroundings.

Jay as he signs himself, claims to have written over 1200 letters of recommendation. These are done for former students, other employees at the college and colleagues at other universities. He never holds back. If he barely remembers a student, he quickly says so. He rambles on about what they wrote about and he considers most of his students stuck in writing about monsters and superheroes. He questions why this student would be considered for various positions. He tells other universities that his collogues are too good for their university. He tells his superiors that the English department is dying on the vine, forced to work in a construction zone that is endangering their health. He is sarcastic and surly, the kind of email one hesitates to open when seeing it in your queue.

This is a delightful book. The epistolary style doesn't always work and some readers dislike it, but in this novel it works wonderfully. The reader slowly gets to understand Fitger and his frustrations. While he is generally disparaging of most, he spends a lot of time trying to help his graduate assistants find work and help collogues who have fallen on hard times. The writing is sprightly and sings on the page and the reader will find themselves laughing out loud. Those readers in academia will read each page nodding their head at how aptly the author has captured the academic environment. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Such a clever concept and execution. Sometimes books told in emails, texts, and letters (lots of versions these days) is a better idea than an actual story, but this one really worked. Highly recommend.

I loved Dear Committee Members -- a sardonic and slightly too real take on academia in the 21st century.