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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Slim and sharply-targeted, much like a rapier, skewering its subject matter. I chuckled my way through most of it -- funny but so on target that it was simultaneously funny and sad. I hope that the author isn't basing this too directly on her own university teaching experience.
There isn't much plot -- told through letters of recommendation, the writer reveals parts of history when he references parts of his past. But the character is well-drawn and, in spite of himself, likable. I definitely got the feeling that he was a real person -- and that he would be exasperated to find out that I harbor a fondness for him. He tries very hard to care only for his books, but is a part of the larger world in spite of himself.
Perhaps I feel this way because, I admit, this book could be an auto-biography written by a relative of mine. It read suspiciously similarly to his annual holiday letters...
I received a copy of this from the Publisher through NetGalley. But I will certainly be buying copies to give as gifts -- if only to those who will appreciate it.
There isn't much plot -- told through letters of recommendation, the writer reveals parts of history when he references parts of his past. But the character is well-drawn and, in spite of himself, likable. I definitely got the feeling that he was a real person -- and that he would be exasperated to find out that I harbor a fondness for him. He tries very hard to care only for his books, but is a part of the larger world in spite of himself.
Perhaps I feel this way because, I admit, this book could be an auto-biography written by a relative of mine. It read suspiciously similarly to his annual holiday letters...
I received a copy of this from the Publisher through NetGalley. But I will certainly be buying copies to give as gifts -- if only to those who will appreciate it.
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I only got about a quarter of the way through this book before I could not take it anymore. It probably would be pretty funny if it weren't so true. It made me very glad that I didn't end up going to grad school in English.
As an academic escapee, I found this book to be a delightful satire of the environment. The letters of recommendation, as much about the writer as the recommended (no surprise there), are funny and honest and demonstrate the self-centeredness academia breeds. Not sure that it will charm outsiders quite as much.
I adored this book. It's rare that I get to read a book that is both smart and funny, with withering prose that skewers the academy and the crazies who haunt it's halls. I've worked in higher ed for 20 years now and this book hits the nail on the head -- actually it just blasts the nail. Faculty members gnawing on grudges "like scraps of carrion"? Priceless. I will confess that I found the ending less than satisfying and I did get a little bored with the missives to Jay's ex wife and his ex lover (he's cut quite a swath thru the school). But overall if you've spent any time dealing with academics this book will make you laugh out loud.
In this epistolary novel, a grumpy, tenured Literature Professor is apparently so blocked that his only creative outlet is his Letters of Recommendation for his students. They are discursive and completely mixed-up with his quixotic quests against the building renovation, the shrinking English Department budget, and a series of poor romantic choices.
He's terribly grumpy and superficially mean, but this very unreliable narrator is also funny and surprisingly kind.
It almost got a 4th star, but I held back for some reason. Your mileage may vary.
If you like reading email of literature professors who are clever writers, this is your bag.
He's terribly grumpy and superficially mean, but this very unreliable narrator is also funny and surprisingly kind.
It almost got a 4th star, but I held back for some reason. Your mileage may vary.
If you like reading email of literature professors who are clever writers, this is your bag.
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Funny, and then suddenly dark at the end. I enjoyed this but won’t continue on in the series as I was starting to get tired of the format by the end of this.
Yes, dear reader, I am reviewing this without having read the whole thing. But life is short and books are waiting. Though I am not engaged enough by Professor Fitger's letters of recommendation for current and former students (and ones he only met for eleven minutes), for professors up for promotion or deanship, for fellowships and to complain to his own supervisors, it is a clever book and depicts many things about academia well. Fitger is witty, depressed, stuck, and not a particularly nice person. I would suggest that the college is not as small as blurbs suggest--there are graduate students at masters and, in the beginning, at the doctoral level, and layers of academic bureaucracy, even as the English department Fitger teaches in is getting smaller and chipped away day by day much like the office building around him. Quick read, and as one friend suggests, might go well with adult drinks.
I essentially enjoy any sendup of academia. But because this was an epistolary novel (and because I too have written and received a fair share of recommendation letters), this was particularly amusing.