Dear Committee Members

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.