Dear Committee Members

Genre: Fiction

This is the witty story of Jason Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing at Payne University, a small liberal arts school in the mid-west. Professor Fitger is asked to write many letters of recommendation for students and colleagues and this book is comprised of some of these letters. He has written upwards of 1,000 LOR’s (letters of recommendations) over the years and has become somewhat cynical about the process. These letters are terse, smart, funny and often uncouth. We learn a little about the Professor’s personal life, the going-ons in his world of academia (English is, apparently, not as important as Economics!) and about the people he writes for and to. Here’s just one of many examples of the Professor’s LORs: “Dear Admissions Committee Members, This letter recommends Melanie DeLarata for admission to the law school…I have known Ms. DeLarata for eleven minutes, ten of which were spent in a fruitless attempt to explain to her that I write letters of recommendation for students who have signed up for and completed one of my classes…she appears to be suffering from the delusion that a recommendation from any random faculty member within our august institution will be the key to her application’s success…God help you…should you admit her…”

I really enjoyed this book. Other than the really good writing, it’s a nice view into the world of academia from a different perspective. There’s not a lot of plot development, there’s some character development, but the letters, very well-written, are very enjoyable, nonetheless. Sometimes the elegance of the art of writing is enough. In this case, it was just right.