Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

Dear Committee Members

Julie Schumacher

Ever spent your day drafting monotonous official letters? If yes, then this may be for you. It's a novel told through the wry and sometimes sardonic letters of Jason Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing at an American college. The letters play out Fitger's growing desperation at all that surrounds him. Clever and entertaining.

Extract
Dear Admissions Committee Members - and Janet:

This letter recommends Melanie deRueda for admission to the law school on the well-heeled side of the 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. A transfer student, she appears to be suffering under the delusion that a recommendation from any random faculty member within our august institution will be the key to her application's success.
Janet: I know your committees aren't reading these blasted LORs - under the influence of our final martini in August you told me as much.
Parallels
  • Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
  • The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
  • Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman