The hilarious and heartfelt conclusion to the Dear Committee Members trilogy chronicles the beleaguered Professor Fitger as he chaperones Payne University’s annual “Experience: Abroad” to London and beyond, with 11 undergrads in tow. 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.

Now is the fall of his discontent, as Jason Fitger, newly appointed chair of the English Department of Payne University, takes arms against a sea of troubles, personal and institutional. His ex-wife is sleeping with the dean who must approve whatever modest initiatives he undertakes. The fearsome department secretary Fran clearly runs the show (when not taking in rescue parrots and dogs) and holds plenty of secrets she's not sharing. The lavishly funded Econ Department keeps siphoning off English's meager resources and has taken aim at its remaining office space. And Fitger's attempt to get a mossbacked and antediluvian Shakespeare scholar to retire backfires spectacularly when the press concludes that the Bard is being kicked to the curricular curb.

Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor at a small liberal arts college. His department is facing cuts and squalid quarters, while another department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life. In short, his life is a tale of woe, and the vehicle this novel uses to tell that tale is a series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students and colleagues to produce.

The members of "The Unbearable Book Club," CeeCee, Jill, Wallis and Adrienne, were all going into 11th grade A.P. English, but they weren't friends. If you want to find out how membership in a book club can end up with a person being dead, you can probably look them up under mother-daughter literary catastrophe.