Four top novels featuring bad academic behavior

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Ellen Wehle tagged four top novels "in which teachers and students run just a little bit off the rails," including:

Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher

I laughed out loud when I read the tagline: “Finally, a novel that puts the ‘pissed’ back into ‘epistolary.’” A novel written entirely in letters can be tough to pull off, but Professor Jay Fitger is such an unforgettable character, so crude and cantankerous and, yes, pissed off, that the format never gets old. On the contrary, Fitger’s poison-pen letters to various university officials and employers just keep getting funnier—and more poignant. Trying to help a student who’s lost his financial aid, Fitger writes, “I’m making this last-minute request with every scrap of human warmth I’ve got left…I’m the tide propelling a shipwrecked man to your doorstep.” Ultimately, Fitger is so rancorous only because the world he loves so much is disappearing: the world of nonprofit, non-corporate higher education. If you’re still paying off student loans (your own or your child’s—or both), Dear Committee Members is sure to strike a chord.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Dear Committee Members.

--Marshal Zeringue