The Shakespeare Requirement: A Novel

Jay Fitger - hapless letter writer from Dear Committee Members and now chair of the beleaguered English department at Payne University - has to get the various professors of English to agree on their Statement of Vision or the Economics department may well and truly take over the university.

I really enjoyed the first book featuring Jay Fitger, which was in fact a novel in hilarious recommendation letters and more that made me laugh out loud but also had some bittersweet moments and I enjoyed getting to know the curmudgeonly English professor. This one, though longer and told in prose, actually felt a bit thinner. Schumacher both skewers and seems to enjoy academia, and works as a creative writing professor herself so she certainly knows show more what she writes. But I didn't find it as appealing or funny, personally, and didn't particularly care for some of the side plots she includes nor the rather abrupt ending. There were some funny moments, especially when it really got into the meat of the book and university politics, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. show less

"The Shakespeare Requirement," by Julie Schumacher, is an engaging and comical follow-up to "Dear Committee Members." The hapless Jason T. Fitger is chair of the English Department at "midsized, middlebrow" Payne University. Fitger's woes are legion: His office is in disarray. The Machiavellian Roland Gladwell, head of the Economics Department at Payne, is determined to squeeze the English faculty out of its space in Willard Hall. Jason's office has no air conditioning, and his telephone and computer do not work. Jason's irritable assistant, Fran, who is passionate about fostering sick animals, has little patience for Jason's whining. Although Fitger still has feelings for his ex-wife, Janet Matthias, she has moved on and is dating show more someone else.

Adding to Jason's headaches, the powers-that-be are considering shrinking his department. They claim that, in the twenty-first century, the liberal arts are not as relevant as business, finance, computer programming, and the sciences. In fact, thanks to a hefty infusion of cash from wealthy donors, the second floor of Willard Hall, where Gladwell rules his fiefdom, has been fully renovated and "includes state-of-the-art technology-enhanced classrooms, a fully equipped computer lab, elegant seminar and meeting rooms, faculty offices, and a café."

Schumacher's comedy of errors has sharp descriptive writing and a large cast of eccentric characters. A fossilized professor who has been at Payne for forty-two years, Dennis Cassovan, is horrified when someone suggests that the heretofore-required course on Shakespeare should be discontinued. Others share Cassovan's indignation, and the Bard becomes a cause célèbre. Another subplot deals with first-year student Angela Vackrey, a bright but introverted young lady who, when she gets into trouble, finds support from several unlikely sources. The author's prose is energetic and literate. She skewers hypocrites and blowhards who lack penetrating intellect, genuine humility, and refinement. Schumacher suggests that if a professor wants to get ahead, he must be politically astute and proficient in networking, fund-raising, and self-promotion. Jason T. Figler is a good-hearted fellow, but he will never be one of Payne University's superstars. In "The Shakespeare Requirement," Schumacher entertainingly pokes fun at the bureaucracy, rivalries, and absurdities of academia. show less

"The Shakespeare Requirement," by Julie Schumacher, is an engaging and comical follow-up to "Dear Committee Members." The hapless Jason T. Fitger is chair of the English Department at "midsized, middlebrow" Payne University. Fitger's woes are legion: His office is in disarray. The Machiavellian Roland Gladwell, head of the Economics Department at Payne, is determined to squeeze the English faculty out of its space in Willard Hall. Jason's office has no air conditioning, and his telephone and computer do not work. Jason's irritable assistant, Fran, who is passionate about fostering sick animals, has little patience for Jason's whining. Although Fitger still has feelings for his ex-wife, Janet Matthias, she has moved on and is dating show more someone else.

Adding to Jason's headaches, the powers-that-be are considering shrinking his department. They claim that, in the twenty-first century, the liberal arts are not as relevant as business, finance, computer programming, and the sciences. In fact, thanks to a hefty infusion of cash from wealthy donors, the second floor of Willard Hall, where Gladwell rules his fiefdom, has been fully renovated and "includes state-of-the-art technology-enhanced classrooms, a fully equipped computer lab, elegant seminar and meeting rooms, faculty offices, and a café."

Schumacher's comedy of errors has sharp descriptive writing and a large cast of eccentric characters. A fossilized professor who has been at Payne for forty-two years, Dennis Cassovan, is horrified when someone suggests that the heretofore-required course on Shakespeare should be discontinued. Others share Cassovan's indignation, and the Bard becomes a cause célèbre. Another subplot deals with first-year student Angela Vackrey, a bright but introverted young lady who, when she gets into trouble, finds support from several unlikely sources. The author's prose is energetic and literate. She skewers hypocrites and blowhards who lack penetrating intellect, genuine humility, and refinement. Schumacher suggests that if a professor wants to get ahead, he must be politically astute and proficient in networking, fund-raising, and self-promotion. Jason T. Figler is a good-hearted fellow, but he will never be one of Payne University's superstars. In "The Shakespeare Requirement," Schumacher entertainingly pokes fun at the bureaucracy, rivalries, and absurdities of academia. show less

Not as anarchic nor as groundbreakingly funny as Dear Committee Member, this is nonetheless a very amusing romp through that haven of academic mediocrity, Payne (oh the puns) College. This time, our non-hero Jason Fitger is the chair of the English Department, which is in the process of being destroyed by the Econ Department, which is confiscating English's space in their shared building. But happily he's got allies: his secretary Fran, who should run the entire world; a lovely naïve student from an unforgiving evangelical background; and even his ex-wife Janet, who both saves and savages him.

Quotes: "His speeches were generally reminiscent of a pair of tennis shoes thumping around in a dryer."

" "The waiter nodded. If you need show more anything, my name is Beck.
"I assume your name is Beck even if we don't need anything?" show less

This book is not so much focused on making fun of academics' foibles (though it does), as it presents a humanizing side of higher-ed, alongside the predatory nature of profit centers which try to destabilize education in favor of administrative power and greed. I'm making this book sound dull, which it most certainly is not. As an adjunct in higher education, I have met many of the archetypes presented in the novel, and I am grateful for the Frans of the world who make departments run with negligible support and resources, and *genuinely* care about the students' well-being.

In this sequel to Dear Committee Members, the beleaguered Jay Fitger is now Chair of the even more beleaguered English Department of the struggling Payne University. Once again, Julie Schumacher is very good at conjuring up a cast of characters and a setting which will be very familiar to anyone who's spent any time in academia—too good, perhaps, since I tended more often to wince in sympathetic recognition than laugh while reading. Yet while Schumacher is deft at capturing the likeness of some of the more depressing aspects of academia, it seemed that she couldn't quite decide whether The Shakespeare Requirement should be a dryer, darker satire of life in the underfunded American public education system, or a broader farce, and so show more the book falls a little between two stools. show less

I listened to this is audiobook format.

This second book in the satirical Payne University trilogy is about the bitter wars between the wealthy Economics Department and the English
Department which is struggling over whether to drop a requirement for majors to take Shakespeare. The bureaucracy and intrigue of an academic environment was humorously captured to the last laugh-or-else-you'll-cry detail. I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to complete the trilogy.