The English Experience. A Novel

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 FallsJason 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.