Key points about the academic satire Dear Committee Members

Finished reading Julie Schumacher's amusing academic satire, Dear Committee Members (2014), composed entirely of letters of recommendation from Professor Jason Fitger on behalf of various students and fellow academicians. The plot such as it is remains thin - we follow the upward or downward course of a few careers, notably a grad student whom JF is touting for fellowships, publication, and eventually for any sort of menial work or internship - but each of the letters is amusing and taken as whole the novel shows the absurdity of the recommendation process. JF, at the end, is something of a hero; I won't provide any spoilers here but suffice it to say that he takes on some responsibility for his beleaguered English department, he puts some of his own $ on the line for an unfortunate student, and he creates a scholarship fund whose awards will be based on student applications only, no letters of recommendation. Yet we're left w/ a bit of a queasy feeling. JF laments that his recommendations were unable to help deserving student, but in the end the whole academic system is based on pull, connections, favors earned and returned, without regard to the merits of the job/school/fellowship applicant. JF believes his top student should get these encomia based on his say-so, regardless of the (mediocre) quality of his work. All told, though, Schumacher does a great job w/ her many hilarious JF letters, almost all of which do manage to convey the essence of the applicant's merits while pleading the case for JF himself and for his under-financed English department - he seems indifferent to the harm his quirky and aggressive letters may do for deserving students and colleagues. It seems a pity that students have no access to the letters written on their behalf - JF, in his neediness and insecurity, is in many ways a malevolent mentor and a false friend.