Dear Committee Members

My hangover prevents me from trying to be witty in this review, so I'll just list why I liked - LOVED - this book.

1. It is really funny. Actual laughing out loud happened when I read it.
2. The format is interesting. At times I had to go back and find the first letter that mentions someone to get the context, but that small inconvenience was balanced by the pleasure I got from the way the format allowed things to unfold.
3. Jay is mad at/resigned to the stupidity of our modern culture, especially the damn kids these days. I too am mad about this.
4. The English Department is being slowly killed off in favor of the sciences, and Jay is fighting the good fight to preserve literature at his school. Some of the funniest passages in the book.
5. The writing is smart, never shying away from a big word or a slyly-cutting turn of phrase. I wish I spoke like this book.

Verdict: fantastic. Easily one of my favorite books that I have read this year.

An acerbic, disillusioned professor of English and Creative Writing writes a series of letters of recommendation, revealing himself and the lives of those around him in the process. This book grew on me. I wasn't very engaged when I started, but about halfway through I realized I was enjoying it quite a bit. The letters are outrageously funny, sometimes because they accomplish the opposite of what a letter of recommendation is normally supposed to do. By the end, the book had done much more than make me laugh (at how little English departments are appreciated, at how eccentric and quarrelsome academics are, at how maddening administrative procedures can be)–it had filled me with sympathy for people dealing with the pain of being alive, and with appreciation for a well-written and hilarious, if completely counterproductive, letter of recommendation.

Clever and funny. There are lots of terrific passages and lines.

But the format does wear after a while and I found that I was missing a “story.”