The Shakespeare Requirement

We first met Jason Fitger as the hapless author of the letters of recommendation and high umbrage that make up Julie Schumacher’s 2014 novel “Dear Committee Members.” This second installment moves from an epistolary approach to a full-on narrative one and is, if possible, even funnier than its predecessor. Schumacher reads the book herself and in her voice, impassive and fatalistic, we hear a lived sense of academic desolation and departmental rue. Fitger is now in the unwanted position of head of English, a department famous for “discord and dysfunction.” Matters have achieved a new level of turbulence with the necessity of coming up with a “Statement of Vision.” The first one proposed made no mention of requiring the study of Shakespeare, an intolerable deficiency in the view of the resident Shakespearean. All hell breaks loose. The imbroglio is a gift to Roland Gladwell, head of economics who hopes to capitalize on it to whittle English down to a nonentity — not that it isn’t pretty much one anyway. In fact, Gladwell’s imperial ambitions have reached into English’s physical territory to annex its conference room. What ensues is a tale worthy of Thucydides — assuming he had a sense of humor — with English as Athens and Economics as Sparta. (Random House Audio. Unabridged, 9 hours)