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Published Aug 2023
240 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Beleaguered Professor Jason Fitger chaperones Payne University's annual "Experience: Abroad" to London and beyond, with eleven undergrads in tow; the bestselling author of Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement completes her hilarious trilogy of academic mishap.
Jason Fitger may be the last faculty member the dean wants for the job, but he's the only professor available to chaperone Payne University's annual "Experience: Abroad" (he has long been on the record objecting to the absurd and gratuitous colon between the words) occurring during the three weeks of winter term. Among his charges are a claustrophobe with a juvenile detention record, a student who erroneously believes he is headed for the Caribbean, a pair of unreconciled lovers, a set of undifferentiated twins, and one young woman who has never been away from her cat before.
Through a sea of troubles—personal, institutional, and international—the gimlet-eyed, acid-tongued Fitger strives to navigate safe passage for all concerned, revealing much about the essential need for human connection and the sometimes surprising places in which it is found.
"A perpetually put-upon English professor is drafted to chaperone a student trip to England, with predictably disastrous if comical results...A satirical recipe that manages to turn sour, mismatched ingredients into something feather-light, affable, and sweet." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Schumacher's droll conclusion to her Fitger trilogy (after The Shakespeare Requirement) finds the blundering American professor abroad and out of his element...Though the passages of student writing tend to wear thin, Schumacher draws the series to a close with a satisfying arc and a surprising twist after Fitger forms an unexpected bond with his charges. Fans will delight in this winning send-off." —Publishers Weekly
"Julie Schumacher's The English Experience is as wise and hilarious and heartbreaking novel as we're likely to get this year. Even more impressive is the fact that she makes it all look so easy." —Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and Somebody's Fool
"The English Experience can be read as a very clever farce about shepherding clueless American students through their study abroad program, or as an careful dissection of the education system itself, depending on whether or not the reader has ever taught at a small liberal arts college. Either way, Julie Schumacher packs us in the suitcase and takes us along for the hilarious, harrowing ride." —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Julie Schumacher grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Oberlin College and Cornell University, where she earned her MFA. Her first novel, The Body Is Water, was published by Soho Press in 1995 and was an ALA Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her 2014 novel, Dear Committee Members, won the Thurber Prize for American Humor; she is the first woman to have been so honored. She lives in St. Paul and is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English at the University of Minnesota.
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