Book Review: The English Experience by Jule Schumacher

By Simon Demetriou

Once again, I find myself doing things the wrong way round. Often, I’ve reviewed the latest book by an author with whose back catalogue I have been painfully unfamiliar. This week, I am taking things a little further by reviewing the third book in a trilogy of which I have not read the first two novels. I’m sorry for the poor form, but what this does allow me to do is turn my crude and subjective measure of a book’s success – does it make me want to go back and read the writer’s previous work? – into a necessity. And the answer is, yes.

Schumacher’s protagonist, Jason – Jay – Fitger, is chair of the English Department of Payne University, an institution whose merchandise reads: Payne University – Where Learning Hurts. If anyone reading this is now left in any doubt that The English Experience is a satirical campus novel, then you need to read more satirical campus novels. Except in this third instalment of the Fitger trilogy, the majority of the story takes place off-campus, with our hapless and misanthropic protagonist forced into chaperoning a study abroad ‘experience’ thanks to the recent descent into insanity of the professor who originally conceived of the programme.

Needless to say, this is a less than ideal situation for Professor Fitger. First, because the memories of his sole previous visit to England ‘involved a sodden cylinder of blood pudding, an evening of poorly timed sex, and rain.’ If you enjoyed that line, then be assured that there will be plenty more jokes at the expense of British food, British weather and Fitger’s unsuccessful former marriage to come. Second, because the accompanying student cohort includes a claustrophobic ex-con, a young man who incorrectly believes himself to be travelling to the Cayman Islands, an eczema-riddled occult-obsessive, and a couple going through a messy break-up.

So far, so predictable. Not a bad thing, because Schumacher fulfils the well-worn campus satire formula with skill and an assured turn of phrase, something which would make the novel more than enjoyable enough for fans of the genre. But what elevates the novel is the way in which Schumacher evokes tenderness, not just for Fitger, whose undying love for both his ex-wife and their shared dog, Rogaine, is begrudgingly irrepressible, but also for the undergraduates with whom Fitger – also begrudgingly – interacts. While some of the eleven students understandably remain only vivid sketches, there are three whose reproduced assignments and conversations turn them into touchingly realised human beings. The result is that you cannot fail to be moved to both laughter and empathy by The English Experience. And that’s why I’ll be reading the first two novels as soon as I can.