I can’t tell if this novel is really good or if it just hit all my nostalgia buttons—hit them hard. First of all, this young adult novel is a novel of letters—actual letters—not e-mails or texts or Instagram photos—between Cath and Scott. This made me think of all the letters I wrote when I went off to college—to friends back home and later, during the summer, to friends I had made at school. These letters were written on stationary of various kinds as well as […]
Read Richard Russo’s Straight Man and then Have this Book for Dessert
I can’t remember the last epistolary novel I read though one of my claims to fame (if you can call it that) is having plowed through to the end of the unabridged edition of Clarissa in my undergraduate 18th century novel class—something I don’t recommend. That particular novel of letters resembled a phone book, so in contrast, Dear Committee Members is refreshingly brief—almost too brief. I would have happily read more. Though readers from any occupation might find this book funny, I think it will […]