god save the beleagured professor

Jason Fitger thought maybe his years of service at Payne University meant something. He was an English professor for many years and then took on the role of department chair when no one else would. He did his best with a shoestring budget and cranky faculty, and he feels like it’s time for the school to give him something back.

Payne University doesn’t see things the same way.

When the history professor who was supposed to take a dozen students to England for a three-week intensive educational experience has to pull out, they turned to Fitger for help. Well, first they turned to every other professor on staff, but when all of them turned the job down, they turned to Fitger to take the “Experience: Abroad” in hand and make it a success. And when he tries to refuse, it’s made clear that the powers that be would be just as pleased to refuse his budget for the upcoming semester. So Fitger packed for England and read through the student applications for the trip.

All the plans had already been made, so all Fitger had to do was show up, with his revised syllabus, and get his students successfully to London. And that’s how he ends up on the other side of the pond with identical twin art students, a dude with first aid experience who thinks he’s going to the Cayman Islands, a couple recently broken up, a young woman leaving her cat for the first time, a young man obsessed with ghosts and the occult, and a law student who is quick to speak up against the patriarchy and colonialism, among others. The one thing all the students have in common, though, is that they all think Fitger’s daily writing assignments, plus a final essay at the end of the trip, is too much writing.

Through rainy weather and a sprained ankle, personal questions, vomiting at the British Museum, mediocre food, humorless tour guides, poker games, underage drinking, grammatical errors, antacids, aspirin, no sleep, a grandmother’s garnet ring, and endless texts between Fitger and his ex-wife about the care of their dog Rogaine, Fitger barely has a moment’s peace for the entire three weeks. But as the days go by and he faces more and more questions from the students that he has no answers for, he can’t help but wonder if they really are learning anything from their Experience: Abroad. Will his students go back to Payne as the same people they were, or will traveling to England transform them?

I first heard about Julie Schumacher back when she wrote Dear Committee Members, the story of an English professor who was attempting to focus on teaching his students but was bombarded with requests for letters of recommendation by students looking for jobs, grad schools, or anything other than an education. That novel won her the Thurber Prize for Fiction, and introduced us all to Payne University and its beloved English professor Jason Fitger. Her novel The Shakespeare Requirement saw Fitger get promoted to department chair and have to deal with all the challenges that entailed, and to round out his teaching experience, he took students to England.

I have been following Schumacher and her beleaguered character for all these years, and I have loved every moment I have gotten to spend with them. These books all have moments that have caused me to laugh until I cried, and they have all had moments of such incredible humanity that I wanted to track Schumacher down and hug her, completely overcome and unable to put into words how much these books have meant to me. As a one-time English major myself, I sometimes struggle to remember if my humanities degree is worth it. When I read these lovely novels, I remember that it’s actually incredibly valuable, even when others only see it as a reason to ask me to spell words for them.

Julie Schumacher is a national treasure, and The English Experience is just more evidence in the beautiful, amazing, healing, moving, hilarious power of words. And in case you don’t get my subtext here, read this book as soon as you can and ten read it again and again and again.

Egalleys for The English Experience were provided by Doubleday Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.