The English Experience
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Julie Schumacher
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By:
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Julie Schumacher
About this listen
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • Beleaguered Professor Jason Fitger chaperones Payne University’s annual “Experience: Abroad” to London and beyond, with eleven undergrads in tow • The bestselling author of Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement completes her hilarious trilogy of academic mishap
“Wise and hilarious and heartbreaking.”—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls
Jason Fitger may be the last faculty member the dean wants for the job, but he’s the only professor available to chaperone Payne University’s annual “Experience: Abroad” (he has long been on the record objecting to the absurd and gratuitous colon between the words) occurring during the three weeks of winter term. 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.
©2023 Julie Schumacher (P)2023 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by LitHub
“Schumacher’s skewering of academia remains sharp as ever… fans of the first two entries will find much to like here… [a] worthy final adventure.”—BookPage
"Julie Schumacher’s novel completes her trilogy of biting send-ups of academia, starring a hapless English professor...the perfect back-to-school novel for cynics."—The Washington Post
“Comfortably sitting alongside classic academic satires such as Kingsley Amis’ Lucky Jim and David Lodge’s Changing Places, Schumacher's trilogy brilliantly skewers the soulless, administrator-led world of contemporary universities, concluding with this edifying and satisfying novel.”—Booklist
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Overall
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The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
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Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
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Murder Ink
- By: Betty Hechtman
- Narrated by: Erin DeWard
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Veronica Blackstone has been hired to write an end-of-life book for a woman whose wedding vows she completed only a year earlier. Saddened by the task and confused by the seemingly callous reactions of family members, Veronica sets forth to create the booklet the woman’s mother desires. But not everything is as it seems, and the more Veronica digs the more she comes to realize that maybe the young woman’s death wasn’t the accident her wealthy family keeps insisting it was.
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Easy
- By Susan on 11-01-23
By: Betty Hechtman
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Summer Hours
- A Novel
- By: Amy Mason Doan
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Becc was the good girl. A dedicated student. Aspiring reporter. Always where she was supposed to be. Until a secret affair with the charming Cal one summer in college cost her everything she held dear: her journalism dreams; her relationship with her best friend, Eric; and her carefully imagined future. Now, Becc’s past is back front and center as she travels up the scenic California coast to a wedding - with a man she hasn’t seen in a decade. As each mile flies by, Becc can’t help but feel the thrilling push and pull of memories.
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LOVED IT
- By Margaret on 04-30-20
By: Amy Mason Doan
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Small Admissions
- A Novel
- By: Amy Poeppel
- Narrated by: Carly Robins
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite her innate ambition and summa cum laude smarts, Kate Pearson has turned into a major slacker. After being dumped by her handsome French "almost fiancé", she abandons her grad school plans and spends her days lolling on the couch, leaving her apartment only when a dog-walking gig demands it. Her friends don't know what to do other than pass tissues and hope for a comeback while her practical sister, Angela, pushes every remedy she can think of, from trapeze class to therapy to job interviews.
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For fans of "Where'd You Go, Bernadette ?"
- By RueRue on 01-16-17
By: Amy Poeppel
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Sisterchicks on the Loose!
- By: Robin Jones Gunn
- Narrated by: Robin Jones Gunn
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Sharon has lived calmly in Chinook Springs, Washington, her entire life. All that changes when her best friend of twenty years, Penny, takes an impulsive trip to seek out her only living relatives in Finland, and brings Sharon with her.
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Fun plot and fun characters
- By Bobbie on 06-03-11
By: Robin Jones Gunn
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Neither Present Time
- By: Caren J. Werlinger
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Can a house save the lives of the people who live in it? Can an inscription written in a book over 60 years ago change the fates of people not even born when it was written? Beryl Gray is solid and dependable - her partner, Claire, thinks so, her family thinks so, her colleagues think so. She has a job she likes as a university librarian. Her life seems settled, content - except nothing is as it seems. Aggie Bishop's last girlfriend left her three years ago and she hasn't had a date since. She now takes care of her great-aunt Cory who doesn't want to be taken care of.
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A beautiful instant classic!
- By MissLynn on 04-15-21
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Lone Stars
- By: Justin Deabler
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Lone Stars follows the arc of four generations of a Texan family in a changing America. Julian Warner, a father at last, wrestles with a question his husband posed: what will you tell our son about the people you came from, now that they're gone? Finding the answers takes Julian back in time to Eisenhower's immigration border raids, an epistolary love affair during the Vietnam War, crumbling marriages, queer migrations to Cambridge and New York, up to the disorienting polarization of Obama's second term.
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Read for bookclub but fell in Love
- By Ericka Lawson on 09-11-22
By: Justin Deabler
What listeners say about The English Experience
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DFK
- 12-13-24
I simply love the Fitger books
I’m not sure if experience in academia, whether as faculty or a student, is a requirement to find these books brilliant, but as someone who did spend time as a faculty member (and certainly a student), and who has family who are or have been in that world, I can attest that there is only the slightest exaggeration in this satiric, witty, humorous and touching series of books. This one was short, but oh, so well done. Every student’s character is well-defined, vulnerabilities so very human, as are Fitger’s flaws and ultimate humanity. The writing is superb, the dialog excellent, and in this case, the travails of a group of eleven students and the professor show us how recognition that everyone might have some back story, some baggage, some trauma, or other experience that might be the reason for what at first seems like character weakness. The politics of academe, the jealousies, the frustrations - all are here. Brilliant work. The author’s narration is a bit slow - I sped it up to 1.1, and perhaps a professional could do a better job, though she does do a fine enough job of having a tone of despair, frustration, dismay, disappointment - all part of the experience.
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- Christine
- 08-18-23
Laughed Out Loud
What's worse? Being on a 3 week study abroad with a substitute prof, or being that substitute prof?
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-31-23
How Can Three Parts of a Trilogy Be So Different?
I listen to all three in succession, and in the correct order. It is remarkable how different they are, though the agony humor persists throughout. I liked each of them in its own way.
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- Y
- 08-29-23
Well written, intelligent story, liked it a lot
The story kept my attention, it was well crafted, well written and humorous. The author writes well and the plot moved along quickly. I liked the approach of relaying information through students’ essays as well as the protagonist’s internal monologue and his frustration at his students’ grammatical choices.
Unfortunately the author as narrator of the essays was hard to listen to. What is probably an attempt to verbalize poor punctuation in essays comes across as a put-upon, hesitant vocal style as if speaking for morons. The essays were narrated in a maddening monotone with run-on sentences that the reader could have inferred if they were just read in a normal voice. Protagonist’s ex-wife’s voice was also insufferable, bitter, negative, done in an over the top cadence and tone.
Overall a wonderful read, written by a great author, which would have been more enjoyable without the verbal theatrics.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Carmela
- 05-06-24
Witty, sad, insight, hope
The English Experience diverges from the usual study abroad story in its approach and rich character development. A Canterbury Tales cast of student characters and their hapless professor spend three weeks in England.Each character tells his or her own tale largely through the almost daily essays they are required to write. Highly recommended for anyone who has participated, whether as student, teacher, guide or hanger on.
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- martin hall
- 10-04-24
Fun and touching
Well-written and enjoyable. I wish more contemporary fiction was like this - engaging, thoughtful, and not afraid to be funny.
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- Lorraine Bayard de Volo
- 05-11-24
Even better than the previous!
Like Schumacher’s first book, this is an observant and funny take on US higher education. But I also found it very sweet and touching—not sappy but generous and kind about our human struggles, both faculty and students’.
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- Gail Vaz-Oxlade
- 05-03-24
Soooo GOOD
This book is so good. Funny. Poignant. Charming. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the joy.
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- sclky
- 08-19-23
Funny and Endearing
Coming of age and coming to terms. The author is such a good reader (and writer.) if you liked this also listen/read Elif Batuman’s The Idiot. Both took me back to my clueless early adulthood, and to the educators who suffered us.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-14-23
A lovely listen.
Funny, insightful, and real. Great characters with amazing issues - all resolved, maybe?? Loved the cat poem!
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