Category Archives: Slate

Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members

 

August 7, 2014 – Slate

Strongest Possible Endorsement by Rebecca Schuman

1“For Dear Committee Members isn’t really an academic novel, or even an academic satire (since most of its depictions of Payne University barely count as hyperbole). It’s a sincere exploration of the depths and breadths of human selfishness, and the contemporary American academy is simply the backdrop, precisely because nowhere else could Fitger’s particular sort of self-obsession be given the autonomy to both metastasize and self-immolate. So in the end, it is exactly Fitger’s selfishness that destructs, rather than his life—and although his semi-redemption may not redeem the rank carcass of academic culture that continues to fester around him, it’s more than enough to recommend this mischievous novel.”

August 13, 2014 – NPR

In A Funny New Novel, A Weary Professor Writes To ‘Dear Committee Members’ by Maureen Corrigan

 

August 17, 2014 – Macleans
August 19, 2014 – Inside Higher Ed
August 25, 2014 – Chronicle of Higher Education
An Academic Novel with a Twist by Jeffrey J. Williams
November 6, 2014 – The Independent
“But perhaps the challenge Schumacher and other writers face is that the university now is almost beyond parody.”

More than just a baseball novel — The Art of Fielding (2011) by Chad Harbach

1 2

“This good-enough undergraduate institution is filled with truly good people: a deeply literary president who is personally admirable, even though he has fallen in love with a student; a gruff chef in charge of dining services who is committed to cooking actually good food; a brilliant, gay, mixed-race roommate who takes his hick of a straight roommate shopping for more socially acceptable jeans; a baseball team captain who is a genuine leader of men, and so on.” http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2011/09/the_perfect_game.single.html

Reviews:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-review-art-of-fielding-harbach,0,7773863.story

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/29/art-fielding-chad-harbach-review?newsfeed=true

http://www.therecord.com/whatson/books/article/665603–chuck-erion-on-books-great-novels-can-point-to-the-path-of-your-life

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-chad-harbach-20120421,0,7822952.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-prj-0422-bom-chart-20120423,0,1895920.story

DSC01362Chad Harbach @ Internationales literaturfestival 2012      Chad Harbach @ internationales literaturfestival berlin 2012